


In Every Universe

by RedQ



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: A TON of awkward situations, Before Barry and Iris start dating, Drunk!Barry, F/M, Family, Humor, Jealous Iris, Romance, Sexual Tension, Westallen x2, set in season 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-06-10 14:28:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6960751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedQ/pseuds/RedQ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iris was alone washing the dishes after dinner one night when she suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap around her. She stiffened when she felt E2 Barry press his body against hers from behind. "Umm," she said awkwardly, not moving a muscle. E2 Barry was oblivious to her lack of response though. He was too busy pressing light kisses to what he thought was his wife's neck.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Refugees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To avoid doppelganger confusion, I'm going to call Earth one Barry and Iris just Barry and Iris, and their Earth 2 versions will be E2 Barry and E2 Iris. I know it's annoying, but it was the best way I could think to write it. This will probably have a strong focus on Westallen (for both Earths).

  **The Refugees**

They all stared at the breach, waiting for the moment when Barry would return. Cisco was only supposed to keep the breech open for 24 hours before closing it again. It made them all nervous that they only had one hour left until 8 pm, and Barry still hadn't come back.

They wished they had sent someone with him, but Barry had insisted that he go alone. He wasn't planning to face Zoom now. He was going to Earth 2 only as a scouting mission, to get more intel on the enemy. They knew now that he was actually Hunter Zoloman, a convicted serial killer on Earth 2, but they didn't know anything else about him. Barry wanted to see if he could maybe find something they could use against him, now that they knew his identity.

They were just lucky that Zoom wasn't waiting for them on the other side when Cisco opened the breach. Still, they all stood, guns ready just in case a speedster other than Barry came through the portal.

They all stood a little straighter when they saw someone suddenly come out of the breach. They all relaxed and lowered their guns slightly when they saw that it was Barry. It took them only a second or two though to instantly tense up again, realizing that the Barry that stood before them wasn't _their_ Barry, but the Earth 2 version of him. Before they could question him or react, however, someone else came through the barrier, and suddenly there were two more people standing in front of them. Barry and another Iris came to stand next to the first man, all three of them breathing heavily.

"Close it!" Barry shouted at Cisco. Cisco quickly obliged, and the portal was closed a second later.

"Barry," Caitlin said, "What are you—?"

"I had to take them with me," Barry panted, bracing his hands on his knees as he caught his breath, "Zoom. He was hunting them."

They all stared at the newcomers who were just getting over the shock of jumping through different dimensions. Iris from Earth 1 looked at them with wide eyes. Barry still looked very much like the Barry she knew, but he had glasses and he looked very unkempt. He clearly needed a shave and his clothes were dirty and disheveled. Iris hardly paid him a moment's glance, however. Her eyes were more focused on the woman standing next to him. It was _her_ , but at the same time it wasn't. She had her hair pulled back, and like the other Barry, she was unkempt and disheveled.

The other Iris wasn't looking at her though. She was staring at her father.

"Dad," she breathed. Without thinking, the Iris from another earth moved forward to close the distance between her and her father. Joe tensed when the woman who was not his daughter, but at the same _was_ his daughter, wrapped him in a bone-crushing hug. He hugged her back awkwardly.

"Er, hi, Iris," he said to her, not knowing what else to say. He glanced at his real daughter, who looked just as taken aback as he was.

"Sorry," E2 Iris said, pulling away from the hug. She wiped the tears from her eyes, "I know you're not him. It's just…you look so much like him."

E2 Barry came to stand next to his wife. He wrapped a comforting hand around her waist.

"Are you okay, baby?" he asked her softly.

"I'm fine," she said, tearing her eyes away from her father's face. They rested on her Earth 1 counterpart, who waved shyly at her.

"Wow," E2 Iris said, "This is really weird."

"I know," Iris said, giving her an uncomfortable smile. Somehow, looking at a real live version of yourself was extremely different from looking into a mirror. It was a bizarre feeling.

"Barry," Wells interrupted the moment, speaking to the young speedster, "What do you mean Zoom was hunting them?"

"It happened after you guys left," E2 Barry answered instead, "Zoom knew that we helped you and we were connected to you. It wasn't safe for us to go home. We've been on the run ever since."

"I'm so sorry," Barry apologized to them for what must have been the millionth time, "I ruined your lives. If I hadn't shown up there…"

"It was _our_ decision to help you," E2 Iris said firmly, "Besides, it was only a matter of time anyways. My husband has been trying to track down Zoom for a year now. It was always going to catch up with us eventually."

"So, Barry?" Cisco asked excitedly, "Did you find anything out? Anything that can help us?"

"Yeah," Barry said, "I found some stuff about his parents. I think we might be able to use it. How, I'm not sure yet, but there's got to be something we can use to our advantage. I'll tell you about all of it in a bit. First, we should probably get them a change of clothes and something to eat."

The couple from Earth 2 smiled and nodded gratefully at him.

"Come on," Iris said, "You can come home with us and use our shower. I'm sure Barry and I both have clothes that will fit you."

They all laughed at that as they walked out of the room. Barry, Cisco and Caitlin all stayed at STAR labs to discuss Zoom, while Joe, Iris, and the young couple drove home. Iris sat in the front seat, next to her father who was driving. She snuck a quick peak at the couple in the back seat. They were holding hands and E2 Iris was leaning her head on her husband's shoulder. Both of them looked exhausted.

When they pulled into the driveway, E2 Iris whispered to her husband.

"Babe, look. It's our house."

When they walked into the house where everything opened up into the living room, the couple looked curiously around the room.

"It's so different," E2 Barry muttered.

"You live here? In this house, on your earth?" Joe asked. E2 Barry nodded, not looking him in the eye.

"Well, I guess you don't need me to tell you where the bathroom is then," Joe laughed, "Iris will grab you two some clothes, and you can shower. I'll get you guys something to eat. You look starved."

"Thank you, Joseph," E2 Barry said. Joe gave him a strange look at the name, but shrugged it off, turning to go to the kitchen.

Iris rummaged through Barry's closet and found a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt for E2 Barry to wear before looking through her own closet to find a set of pajamas for E2 Iris. They thanked her, and she went back down the stairs to help her father in the kitchen.

Barry came home just as the earth 2 couple were descending back down the stairs, wearing the clothes that Iris had provided them. The five of them sat down to eat at the kitchen table in silence. They all just couldn't stop staring at each other.

E2 Iris couldn't stop staring at her father's doppelganger who was still alive. Iris couldn't stop staring at the alternate version of herself with Barry's double as her husband. She couldn't help but notice how close they sat next to each other, their arms touching as they ate.

Joe felt like he was seeing doubles with two sets of the same people sitting in front of him. The entire situation was just bizarre for all of them.

"Thank you," E2 Iris said, breaking the silence, "We can't thank you enough for all you're doing for us. Taking us in like this, even if it's just for one night. It was hard on our earth to find people like that. Everyone is so scared and paranoid over there. You'd have to be nuts to let a stranger into your home where we're from."

"Well, technically you're not strangers," Joe said with a shrug, "Not really anyways. We sort of know you." He laughed at the complicatedness of it all, "And it doesn't have to be just for one night. You two can stay as long as you need to. You're practically family after all."

"Thank you," Iris said warmly. Her husband remained silent, staring blankly. Iris nudged him.

"What?" he asked, snapping out of it, "Oh, yes. Th-thank you, Joseph."

"Are you okay, hun?" E2 Iris asked him concernedly, taking the side of his face in her palm.

"I'm…I'm fine. It's just a lot. All of this, it's a lot to take in. I was still just getting used to the fact that other earths existed and that I'm a superhero on one of them," he said, gesturing at Barry, who shifted uncomfortably in his chair, "Now, Zoom is targeting us, and suddenly we're interdimensional refugees, and we're hiding out in your father's house, which is really our house, and—"

"Sweetie," E2 Iris said gently, "It's okay. Take a breath."

He did as she instructed, and she moved her hand from his face to take his hand that was resting on the table. "Everything will be fine," she said reassuringly, "I know it's a lot to adjust to, but we're safe now. You can relax. We have Barry here to protect us."

She smiled warmly at Barry, who blushed. E2 Barry let out a shaky breath.

"I'm just exhausted," he said, "I think I need to lie down."

"Me too," E2 Iris said, yawning.

"You both should really get some sleep," Joe said understandingly, "You two can take mine and Barry's rooms for the night."

"Um," E2 Iris said, "We don't need two rooms. We're married, remember?"

"Oh," Joe said, "Right, I guess then, um, you can just…"

"You can take my room," Barry said, saving Joe from his fumbling, "I'll stay on the couch."

"Are you sure, Barry?" Iris said, "We don't want to turn you out of your room."

"Yeah, it's fine," Barry assured them, "I'm sure you two will make better use of the bed anyways."

Barry blushed furiously, having realized what he had just said.

"What I mean is," he said quickly, "I usually end up getting up multiple times during the night for Flash stuff anyways. I don't get a whole lot of sleep, and—"

"We get it, Bar," E2 Iris said, cutting him off. She smiled at him, "We really appreciate it. Thank you."

"Thank you," E2 Barry said, looking at all of them. The couple then got up and climbed the stairs to retire for the evening. After the pair had gone, Joe, Iris and Barry all got up to clear the dining room table.

"Well, that was weird," Joe said. Barry and Iris laughed lightly.

"Yeah, having those two around is going to take some getting used to," Barry mused.

"Is it just me, or was the other Barry a little standoffish towards me?" Joe asked as he cleared the plates from the table.

"Give him a break, dad," Iris said, "His whole world just changed. Literally."

"No, he's right," Barry said, "He probably _is_ going to be a little weird around you, Joe. Remember what I told you about how earth 2 Joe West didn't like me?"

Joe nodded.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that feeling was mutual," Barry told him, "Except now that's all complicated because that Joe is dead now, and Barry probably feels conflicted about the whole thing."

"Wow," Joe said, "As if this whole situation wasn't complicated enough already."

"Yeah, it's a headscratcher alright," Barry laughed.

"I think I should probably be going to bed too," Joe said, literally scratching his head. They said their goodnights as he departed, leaving Barry and Iris standing alone in the living room together. Barry leaned against the back of the couch and looked at her apologetically.

"I'm sorry if this is weird for you," he said.

"What do you mean?" Iris asked laughingly, but she knew exactly what he meant.

"Those two. The other versions of you and me. I know it's a bit weird having them here. They're married and together and we're…" Barry paused painfully, not sure where he was going with this or what he was trying to say.

"Well, if this is weird, then I can't imagine what it must have been like for you when you were over there pretending to be your other self," she said with a laugh Barry smiled.

"Yeah," he said, "That was probably weirder."

They both laughed. Iris made to go up the stairs, but she paused at the bottom step.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay on the couch?" she asked him, eyeing the couch uncertainly, "It doesn't look very comfortable."

"I'll be fine," he said, smiling warmly at her, "Goodnight, Iris."

She stared at him for a moment as he pulled a few blankets out and tried to make the couch more comfortable, not looking at her.

"Goodnight, Barry."


	2. Blame it on the Wine

"That's incredible!" Barry exclaimed, "If we had that kind of technology on this earth, it would completely change the way we identify unknown persons!"

"That's just forensic odontology," E2 Barry said just as enthusiastically, "Wait until I tell you about our advancements in forensic toxicology!"

The two continued to animatedly talk about forensic science, much to the amusement of the two Irises that were standing in the room.

"You done with this, babe?" E2 Iris asked her husband, grabbing his plate. He nodded absently at her, still talking to the earth 1 version of himself, explaining in full detail the viral analysis software he had created.

E2 Iris grabbed both their breakfast plates from the table and brought them over to the sink where the other Iris was washing the dishes.

"I don't think we're ever going to get them to stop," Iris laughed, nodding towards the two Barrys.

"Well, once you get my husband started on analytical forensics, he can talk for ages," E2 Iris said, watching him fondly as she started to dry the dishes, "And now it looks like he's found the perfect person to discuss it with him."

Iris laughed, "Does that technically count as talking to yourself?"

E2 Iris laughed too, "Well, if it does, that means we're guilty of it too."

Both women laughed and then continued to wash the dishes and listen to the two men talk as if they were old friends who just hadn't seen each other in a long time and had quite a bit of catching up to do.

"What's it like?" E2 Iris asked her suddenly, "Having a superhero for a best friend?"

Iris smiled thoughtfully.

"I don't know," she said, "I haven't really thought about it before. Barry has been my best friend much longer than he's been the Flash. I think to me, he's always going to be just Barry, you know? We've been best friends since we were kids."

"Same here," E2 Iris said, smiling down at the plate she was drying, "My Barry and I have known each other since we were kids. He's my best friend and my partner."

Iris considered her words for a moment before speaking.

"When…" Iris paused, not sure whether or not to ask, "When did you two realize you were more than friends?"

Before E2 Iris could reply, however, Joe walked back into the room.

"We should probably all head over to STAR labs," he said to everyone, "We still have to figure out a way to take down Zoom."

Although the rest of the team had told the earth 2 couple that they didn't have to help, E2 Barry and Iris wanted to contribute. They wanted to take down Zoom just as badly as the rest of them, and they wanted to do anything they could to help.

E2 Barry went to the computer monitors in the Cortex. He started to pull up all the files that he had collected on Zoom (thanks to Wells' software that allowed him to access data from another universe). The group worked all day on devising a plan against Zoom. By that evening, they were all exhausted as they headed home.

Joe decided to open a couple bottles of wine for the group of them to enjoy with their dinner that night. After a while, once they had all had a glass or two, the five of them were all laughing and joking around as they discussed the differences between their two worlds.

"Wait, wait, wait," Joe said, holding his hands up and laughing, "So you're telling me, that on your earth Leonard Snart is the _mayor_ of Central City?"

"I still don't understand what you find so funny about that," E2 Barry said, laughing into his wine glass as he took another sip.

"Trust me," Barry said to him, "If you knew Snart on this earth, or Captain Cold as we call him, you would find it funny too."

The group of them laughed. E2 Iris poured herself another glass of wine.

"Would you like some more wine, Barry?" she asked, seeing that Barry's glass was nearly empty.

"No, no, I'm good," Barry said smiling and placing a hand over the top of his glass, "I wouldn't want to waste it."

Upon seeing E2 Iris's confused expression, he added, "Alcohol has no effect on me."

"Oh," she said in surprise, "Really?"

Barry nodded.

"That's fascinating," the other Barry said excitedly, "Is it because you digest it too fast to absorb the alcohol, or does your liver just process it too fast for you to feel its effects? Or maybe your kidneys just excrete fluids at a faster rate. Then there's always the blood brain barrier to consider when you're talking about CNS depressants like alc—"

"Babe," E2 Iris said, placing a hand on her husband's shoulder, "You're doing it again."

"Oh, sorry hun," he said, grinning sheepishly.

"Sorry," she said to the rest of them, "He gets a bit chatty once you get a few drinks in him."

"At least I don't get clingy," he teased, gesturing to his arm that she had interlocked with her own.

The others laughed somewhat uncomfortably. They were interrupted, however, by the sound of Barry's phone vibrating. With a groan, Barry suddenly stood up from his place at the dining room table.

"Sorry, gotta go guys," he said, "There's a fire on Mongolia Blvd."

With that, Barry was gone in a second.

"Wow," E2 Iris laughed, "I don't know how you guys ever could get used to that. One second he's there, and the next, whoosh."

Joe and Iris both laughed.

"Yeah, you don't ever really get used to it," Iris admitted, "He's pretty fast, but he still manages to be late for everything somehow."

"Gee, now who does that sound like?" the other Iris said, looking pointedly at her husband. He held his hands up in defense.

"Oh, come on," he laughed, "I'm not late for _everything_."

"Hmm, our wedding?"

"I'm never going to live that down, am I?" he grinned.

"Nope," she smirked, "I've got something to hold over your head for eternity. Or at least, 'as long as we both shall live'."

The couple gazed dreamily into each other eyes for a second before remembering that they weren't the only ones in the room and that they were being somewhat rude. They both scooted slightly away from each other, turning back to Iris and Joe.

It wasn't much later that the group of people decided to turn in for the night. Like always, Joe left the front door unlocked for Barry for when he returned, and they all headed up the stairs to their rooms for the evening.

…..

Iris woke early in the morning. She descended down the stairs quietly, making her way for the kitchen. She wanted to get an early start making breakfast for everyone before they all woke up. Her father, however, had already left the house, having gotten called in early to work.

From the stairs, Iris could see Barry sleeping on the couch and tiptoed silently down the remaining steps. She cringed when the last step creaked loudly, but Barry didn't wake up.

Iris moved closer to him without thinking. As she crossed the room, she nearly tripped on one of his boots that he had left on the floor, along with the rest of his Flash suit. When she got closer to him, she realized with a jolt that Barry was in just his boxers, all of the blankets discarded onto the floor.

Then she remembered. His clothes were upstairs in his room that was currently occupied by their earth 2 doppelgangers. He must have left the clothes he had been wearing before at STAR labs when he changed into his suit, and clearly he had been too exhausted to run all the way back there for them.

Barry was lying on his stomach, feet dangling over the side of the too small couch. One of his long arms hung over the edge, his fingers grazing the floor. The position didn't look at all comfortable to Iris, but it must have worked well for him because Barry was dead to the world as he slept, his face smooth with closed eyes and slightly parted mouth.

A faint whiff of smoke reached Iris's nostrils, no doubt from the fire that Barry had left to put out last night. She found the smell mingled with Barry's usual natural aroma strangely alluring. Looking at his peaceful face, Iris couldn't help but notice how handsome Barry really was, and she couldn't stop her eyes from then scanning over Barry's bare back, taking note of how toned and muscular it was, particularly around his shoulder blades. His skin looked so soft…and touchable.

Iris gave herself a mental shake. What was she doing? Standing here practically drooling over Barry while he slept. She must still be a bit tipsy from the wine she had had last night. That had to be it. She turned away from him and made her way to the kitchen. She was somewhat taken aback when she entered the room.

It was a complete mess. Food boxes and wrappers and dishes covered the entire counter. Clearly, Barry had come home late last night, ravenous after using his superspeed as the Flash. Normally he cleaned up after himself, but he must have been too exhausted to the night before. Iris didn't mind cleaning up for him from time to time. Really she felt bad for him. He never seemed to get a rest from his Flash duties, and when he finally did, poor Barry was always two things: hungry and exhausted.

Iris had just managed to get the kitchen cleaned up when Barry walked in. No. Not Barry. Earth 2 Barry. It was a good thing he had glasses and wore his hair differently, or she would have had a hard time telling the two of them apart.

"Morning," he said to her, taking a seat at the counter. His wife soon followed him, wearing just a short, silky morning robe. She smiled warmly at Iris. Iris took in her long bare legs, and blushed. She didn't normally prance around the house in just a thin robe like that. Her counterpart was clearly more comfortable with displaying her body openly, making Iris feel a little uncomfortable.

To her surprise, E2 Barry offered to help her make breakfast. Apparently he was quite the cook. She found this somewhat amusing considering the fact that her Barry couldn't cook worth shit. She found it adorable actually. Every time Barry tried making anything, he would somehow mess it up, whether it was from using salt thinking it was sugar or just downright burning everything he touched. He couldn't even make mac and cheese right, always over or undercooking the pasta. His hopelessness in the kitchen was just part of his charm though.

Iris always told him he'd have to find a good wife who could cook for him or he might starve. He had always used to retort by saying, "I've already found a good cook. You make everything just the way I like it." She hadn't realized the hidden meaning in his words at the time. Now looking back, she can't believe she hadn't seen that he had had feelings for her all those years. Really, it had been so obvious.

"You seem distracted," E2 Barry said, glancing at her. Iris laughed it off.

"What makes you say that?" she said lightly. He gestured to the pan of eggs she was making. They were burning.

"Whoops," she said, quickly turning them over, "I guess the eggs are going to be a bit well done today."

E2 Barry laughed. Iris was surprised by how his laugh sounded exactly like her Barry's laugh. Really, why would it be any different though?

"Morning, everyone," her Barry said brightly, entering the kitchen fully dressed. Iris noticed his eyes widen ever so slightly when he laid eyes on her doppelganger in her silky robe. His eyes lingered over her exposed long, dark legs for just a second longer before he looked away, recovering quickly.

"Oh my god," he said suddenly, "I'm so sorry about the mess I left in here last night."

"No worries, Bar," Iris laughed, "It didn't take long to clean up."

"I wish you had just woken me," he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck, "I meant to clean it all up before everyone else woke up."

"Bar," Iris said, "It's fine. You were exhausted last night. Seriously, I didn't mind."

"Thank you, Iris," Barry said gratefully, "Do you guys need any help with anything?"

"No!" Iris said quickly. She laughed, "Sorry, Barry, but you're hopeless in the kitchen."

Barry shrugged with a crooked smile. He couldn't help but agree with her there.

"What time are we going to STAR labs today?" E2 Iris asked, buttering toast for everyone.

"Sorry," Barry said, "But it's Monday, and I have a day job to get to. I won't be able to go to STAR until this afternoon."

"You're going to the CCPD?" E2 Barry asked excitedly, "Mind if I tag along? I'd love to see your lab setup!"

"Oh," Barry said, surprised, "Um, yeah I guess. As long as no one sees you of course. Two of me might be a bit difficult to explain if anyone there saw the two of us together at the same time."

"With your abilities, I'm sure we'll be able to avoid that," E2 Barry said dismissively. "Do you mind, dear?" he asked his wife.

"Not at all," she said, "It'll give me and Iris some girl time to get to know each other better."

Iris smiled back at her. Today was going to be an interesting day.


	3. A Day With Your Double

"Wow, you actually have a pretty decent setup here," E2 Barry said, nodding his approval as he looked around the room, picking a few things up to observe them briefly as he walked through the lab.

"Why the tone of surprise?" Barry asked laughingly, watching the other Barry walk around the lab. If Barry really thought about it, his earth 2 double could be just a hint condescending sometimes.

"No reason," E2 Barry said, "I guess I just expected your lab to be really different from mine. I just know we have different tastes in different things. I mean, look at these clothes."

E2 Barry gestured down to the button-down shirt and jeans he was wearing. Barry just laughed.

"Well, I didn't really care for those bowties much either," he said jokingly.

"Okay, okay," E2 Barry said, laughing and putting his hands up, "To each their own, I guess. At least there is one thing we seem to have similar taste in though."

"And that would be?" Barry asked.

"Our taste in women," E2 Barry said with a surveying look on his face. Barry's eyes widened.

"Well, I uh…I don't…she's…what do you mean?" he finally managed to ask.

"Don't give me that," E2 Barry said, "I see the way you look at your Iris. You think I don't recognize my own facial expressions?"

Barry laughed nervously.

"Well, it doesn't really matter how I feel. She doesn't feel the same way."

"I beg to differ," E2 Barry countered instantly, "I've also noticed the way she looks at you."

Barry's eyebrows furrowed as he looked at his earth 2 self questioningly.

"Your Iris looks at you with the same facial expressions my wife has when she looks at me," E2 Barry observed, "Trust me. She's in love with you."

Barry snorted.

"Okay, if you say so," he said with a hint of sarcasm.

"I _do_ say so, and let me tell you, Mr. Allen," E2 Barry said firmly, "I'm usually right about everything. Just ask my wife. She hates it."

"Well, I'm not going to hold my breath," Barry said to him, "I've already made it clear to Iris how I feel about her. I'm not going to go get my hopes up that her feelings may have changed. I've been rejected enough. I don't think I can take any more or put Iris in that position again. It's not fair to either of us."

"Hey, I'm just telling you what I see," E2 Barry said, "What you do with that information is up to you."

Barry just nodded at him, and then turned to the stack of papers on his desk.

"Well, I'm glad you decided to come to work with me," he said, "I always wished I had two of me here, so I could get this all done faster. My speed only helps me so much."

"Glad I could be of assistance," E2 Barry said with a smile. He grabbed one of the files and opened it to read it, sitting down at the desk, already making himself at home in the earth 1 lab. Barry grinned and grabbed his own stack of files. When Barry started to speed read through them, E2 Barry couldn't help but stare. Barry paused what he was doing and looked back over at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing," E2 Barry said dismissively, shaking his head, "I just wish I could do that. It seems like it would really come in handy."

"Yeah, well not as much as you would think," Barry said with a laugh, "When I speed read it, I can't remember the information for long. If it worked that way, I would have learned all the languages by now and memorized the entire encyclopedia or something."

E2 Barry laughed.

"Now _that_ would be something," he said. He gave Barry a surveying look that made Barry somewhat uncomfortable for some reason.

"What?" Barry asked again.

"I was just wondering about your powers," E2 Barry said with a shrug, "You haven't really told me much about how they work. As a scientist I'm extremely curious about them, but I didn't want to make you uncomfortable by asking."

"What did you want to know?" Barry asked him with a small smile.

"How fast can you go?" E2 Barry asked immediately. Barry scratched the back of his neck.

"I'm somewhere around mach 3," Barry said unsurely, "We don't always measure it, but from what we've recorded, that's about as fast as I can go. We're working on it though."

E2 Barry laughed.

"You make it sound as if that's not impressive," he said, shaking his head in amusement.

"Well, compared to Zoom, it isn't," Barry said bitterly, "Wells is working on a tachyon enhancement device for me though. It should help me boost my speed."

"Tachyons?" E2 Barry said, "Really? That's amazing technology! Do you think Dr. Wells will let me work on it with him? Maybe I could help him with it!"

"Sure, you can ask him," Barry said with a laugh, "Just to warn you though. He doesn't really work well with others. I tried to work on something with him not that long ago, and he blew up at me at one point. Said I was trying to turn him into some kind of mentor or something."

"I'm sure I can get through to him," E2 Barry said insistently, "I've always dreamed of working on a project with him."

"What's more interesting to you? The tachyons or Wells?" Barry asked with amusement.

"It's hard to say," E2 Barry said excitedly, clasping his hands together.

"Well, I'd appreciate it if you kept your cool around Wells for me," Barry said gently, "It's a little hard for me to look him in the eye when my Earth 2 double is practically drooling over him all the time."

"I do not _drool_ over him," E2 Barry said in a dignified voice, "I may have expressed a bit of…excitement when I first met him, but—"

"Excitement?" Barry said incredulously, "You started telling him about how you laminated his thesis on string phenomenology."

"Okay," E2 Barry admitted, "But until you've read that thesis, you can't judge me for it."

Barry rolled his eyes at his E2 self. Did he seem this dorky to everyone else on his earth?

…..

"You don't have to go to work today?" E2 Iris asked her double. Iris shook her head with a smile.

"One of the best things about being a reporter, you can take your work home with you."

Iris sat down with a fresh cup of coffee at the dining room table. She opened her laptop but didn't really look at it as her doppelganger sat down next to her.

"Anything I can do to help?" E2 Iris asked. Iris shook her head with a smile.

"No, that's okay. I've been stumped on this article for a while now. I don't think I'll be able to work on it much today anyways."

"Well, I'm probably not the best person to help you with that anyways," E2 Iris laughed, "I'm terrible with writing. Barry's always been better at that stuff. He's published a couple books on applying criminology to forensics."

"Wow, so I guess Barry's the writer on your earth then, huh?" Iris said, shaking her head with a thoughtful smile.

On earth 2, she was the cop, Barry was the writer and the cook, and her father was the singer. It's funny because on this earth, her dad is a terrible singer. Barry had always been the one with an amazing voice. They didn't get to hear his singing voice very often though. He only really sang on rare occasions, usually when he thought no one was listening. Whenever Iris got to hear him sing, it was like the world had stopped and she would pause to listen, wishing she could hear him sing forever. He always stopped way too soon.

"Yeah, well, he had to put his PhD to good use somehow," E2 Iris said with a smile, snapping Iris from her reverie.

"You're always smiling when you talk about him," Iris observed.

"So are you," E2 Iris said with a knowing look.

"What do you mean?"

"You get this fond grin on your face every time you talk about your Barry," E2 Iris said, turning the tables on her observation.

"Well, he's my best friend," Iris said dismissively, "Of course I'm fond of him."

Thankfully E2 Iris didn't press her. The conversation reminded Iris of the conversation they were having the day before though.

"So, you never answered my question I asked you yesterday," Iris said nervously. When E2 Iris looked at her questioningly, she elaborated, "I asked you when you knew…that you and Barry were more than friends."

"Oh," E2 Iris said. She smiled as she thought about it. "It's hard to say. There wasn't really an exact moment, you know? It sort of just slowly snuck up on us over the years. We had always been so close, best friends for life we always used to say. I think in middle school, we both had little crushes on each other, but we never really acted on them. We both were too afraid of losing our best friend."

Iris listened intently, her mind thinking back to how close she and Barry had always been. They were probably even closer, seeing as they both grew up in the same house. She wondered if that played a part in why things turned out differently between them here than they did on Earth 2. She would contemplate on that idea later though. Right now she was listening fixedly on every word her doppelganger had to say.

"He was always so shy," E2 Iris continued with a grin on her face, "By the time we reached high school, it was obvious that we had feelings for each other, but he was too shy to ever act on them. Between the two of us, I was always the bold one, and my Barry has always been a bit more reserved and unassuming.

"Everyone knew we were going to end up together, even our parents, but Barry never really stepped up and asked me out. Our sophomore year, I had to drop about a million hints before he even asked me to go to homecoming with him, and even after that we weren't officially a couple."

"So how did you eventually end up dating?" Iris asked, amused by the story. Although her Barry had always been a little more on the reserved side, he wasn't _that_ shy. When he was in high school, he had asked girls out, and he had a few girlfriends over the years, especially when he went to college.

"That's where it gets funny," E2 Iris said with a small laugh, "I was growing more and more frustrated that he wasn't getting the hint. I knew that he liked me, and so did everyone else apparently. Most people just assumed we were already dating, which is why it was really funny when we were voted cutest couple for our class that year."

Iris laughed.

"You two were cutest couple?"

"Yeah," E2 Iris said, "And we were for the remaining two years after that. Except, for those two years we were actually dating then. Barry finally got the courage to ask me out after that happened, and I remember hitting him, yelling at him and asking why it took him so long. He was so adorable when he was stuttering his apology to me but grinning at the same time."

Iris couldn't help but mirror the other woman's smile. It was such a sweet story, and the whole thing seemed to play out easily in her head like a movie. She could see it now, how easily she could have fallen for Barry if the circumstances had been different and she hadn't been so blind at the time. Maybe if she had just opened her eyes a little earlier and seen what was right in front of her, she and Barry could have been high school sweethearts on both earths.

"It's funny how my dad acted towards Barry after we started dating," E2 Iris went on, "He said he always knew we would end up together, but once we finally did, it was like he started looking for reasons to say that Barry wasn't good enough for me."

"Why would he think that?" Iris asked.

"Oh, that's just the way he was," E2 Iris said dismissively, "It wasn't Barry's fault. When it came to my dad, no guy was ever going to be enough for his daughter."

Iris couldn't help but notice the tears that seemed to well up in her double's eyes.

"S-sorry," she said, sniffing, "I just really miss him. It's been a little tough, being here and seeing my dad every day, knowing it's not really my dad."

"I can't even imagine what that must be like," Iris said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, "I know Barry struggled with that too. He said it was really hard not to get emotionally sucked in when it came to interacting with your loved ones' doubles on another earth."

"Yeah," E2 Iris said, wiping her eyes, "I'm sure it was just as hard for him to talk to his mom when he was there as it is for me with my dad now."

Iris's eyes grew wide.

"Barry talked to his mom?" she asked, surprised.

"He did," E2 Iris told her, "He called her on the phone. I didn't understand why he started crying at the time. Now, being here, I more than understand it."

"He didn't tell us that," Iris said thoughtfully, wondering why he would have kept that to himself. It probably significantly added to reason why he was so down after he had gotten back. Earth 2 had really messed him up for a while, and Iris was starting to fully understand why. It made her wonder if there was anything else that Barry hadn't told them about earth 2.

…..

"Oh, come on," E2 Barry said in exasperation when he looked over to see Barry eating yet another calorie bar, "You cannot seriously still be hungry. We just had lunch!"

"Hmm?" Barry said absently, looking up from the report he had been reading while he chewed. "Oh, I'm not even hungry," he said, "I just eat out of habit now. I don't really even think about it anymore. I just do it."

"It looks exhausting," E2 Barry observed, watching Barry take the last bite of the bar.

"Oh, trust me it is," Barry said only half-laughing, "It's not easy choking down this much food every day. I get a lot of stomach aches, and the food bills take a huge chunk out of my paycheck too."

"I don't know how you even still get any enjoyment out of food anymore to be honest," E2 Barry said, thinking of just how much food he had seen Barry eat already today, and it was only just past noon. Barry laughed but nodded slightly. He wasn't exactly wrong. Food was more a hassle for him now than it was a pleasure.

"If you stopped running, would you be able to eat less?" E2 Barry asked curiously.

"Maybe slightly," Barry answered as he considered it, "But I burn a crazy amount of calories just at rest too. Even when I'm asleep, I'm excessively burning calories. Some nights I have to keep two full cartons of juice next to my bed just to drink throughout the night. Otherwise I wake up dizzy and weak in the morning from low blood sugar."

"Wow, that _really_ sucks," E2 Barry said sympathetically. Barry simply shrugged with a small smile.

"It's a small price to pay," he said, "considering all I can do."

Just then Barry's phone started beeping. Great. It was Cisco's metahuman alert app.

"I've gotta go," Barry said, looking down at his phone in alarm. Before E2 Barry could even respond, Barry had disappeared into thin air.

And then of course, just after Barry left, Captain Singh walked into the lab to find E2 Barry by himself.

"Nice glasses, Allen," he said flatly after glancing up from his paperwork to look at him. He looked back down at the papers in his hands.

"Singh," E2 Barry said in shock. He stood up from his desk and backed away from the man, "What are you doing here?"

The captain looked up from his paperwork in confusion.

"Last I checked this lab still belongs to the CCPD," the captain said irritably, "And I'm its captain after all."

"Captain," E2 Barry muttered to himself. Dave Singh was a criminal on his earth. Guess this is how the rest of them felt when he told them Leonard Snart was the mayor on Earth 2.

"Right, sorry, captain," E2 Barry said quickly to Singh, "What can I do for you?"

"Just wondering where you were at in that fiber analysis from that robbery last week," Singh said impatiently.

"Robbery…?"

Singh sighed.

"The Henderson file."

"Oh right!" E2 Barry said quickly, "I think he—I finished that this morning."

He grabbed the file off Barry's desk and handed it to the captain.

"Here you are, sir," he said with a nervous smile. Singh surveyed him suspiciously.

"That's it?" he asked, "That's all you're going to say? Here you are, sir?"

E2 Barry shifted nervously, not sure what else Barry's boss wanted from him exactly.

"You're not going to go into some long-winded explanation?" Singh asked him sternly, "You're not going to try to explain every minute detail to me?"

"Um, did you want me to?" E2 Barry asked quietly, wringing his hands. He didn't know anything about the case. Barry had barely mentioned anything to him about it.

"No," Singh said, tucking the file into the rest of his stack, "No, I did not."

He gave E2 Barry another surveying look.

"You feeling okay, Allen?" he asked suspiciously.

"I feel fine, sir," E2 Barry said nervously.

"Not bottle sick or anything?" Singh demanded.

"What?" E2 Barry asked, his eyes going wide, "No. No, nothing like that, sir. I'm just a little out of sorts is all. I lost my contacts this morning," he invented, "and then I—"

"I don't care to hear all the details, Allen," Singh said impatiently, waving a hand dismissively, "Just get back to work. We're being overrun with cases right now. We can't afford to have our CSI feeling 'out of sorts'."

"Yes, sir," E2 Barry said with a nod. Jeez, and he thought that his boss on his earth could be a real hard ass. Less than five minutes with the guy, and E2 Barry could tell that this earth's Singh was a real piece of work. Barry really had his hands full with this guy.

Captain Singh gave him one last suspicious glance before turning and leaving the lab. The kid was really acting strange. He was so quiet. And what was with the glasses? He had never seen Allen wear them before and he had never mentioned that he had contacts. Then again, why would he?

The kid was probably just tired like the rest of them. Singh hadn't been kidding when he said they were starting to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of cases coming in right now. So far, the young CSI had managed to keep up pretty well, but he could only do that for so long. Barry would only be able to handle so much before it became too much for him.

Captain Singh was pretty exhausted himself. Being the captain, the high crime rates were affecting him as much as anyone else, if not more. The stress was starting to get to him. Singh decided to take the elevator to get downstairs. It wasn't because he was tired or lazy. He just knew that it would be closer to his office, and he would be able to slip into his office unseen easier from the elevator than from the stairs.

Even the captain had to avoid his own employees sometimes. The last thing he needed was some rookie detective coming up to him asking him a million silly questions about a ridiculously simple case. When the elevator doors opened, Singh was ready to slip into his office as quickly and sneakily as possible. He was caught off guard though when he nearly ran right into Barry Allen.

Great. The last person he needed to run into. The young CSI was probably going to talk and talk until Singh started to lose his…mind. Wait. Allen?! Didn't he just see him upstairs?

Barry didn't even look at the captain though. He walked right past him and made his way over to Joe's desk to talk to him. Singh gaped at him. Did he just run down the stairs or something? He _did_ look kind of winded as if he had just been running. Where did his glasses go though? Is that even what he was _wearing_ two seconds ago?! Singh literally scratched his head as he stared at the young forensic scientist who was now talking to Joe at his desk. After a moment or two, Allen made his way over to the stairs and quickly climbed up them to disappear back into his lab.

Singh didn't get it. Something wasn't right here. He gave his head a small shake. He must have been imagining things. Maybe he was just working too hard and the stress was finally starting to get to him. On that thought, captain dismissed the whole thing, and he took care to finally slip into the solitude that was his office without being detected. He really needed a vacation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry! I'll be bringing the two "couples" back together in the next chapter. Maybe a little E2 Westallen PDA coming up next ;)


	4. It's not Leather

Everyone in the West household was still getting used to their new houseguests and the strange dynamics that came with them. Having a young couple living in their house with them made things a bit awkward to say the least. It was made worse by the fact that they looked exactly like Barry and Iris. The young pair were clearly very much in love, and they didn't seem to be able to keep their hands off each other. They had been married for two years, but they acted like newlyweds with the way they were always touching and doting on each other.

E2 Iris always lingered on her husband, wiping the corner of his lip when he had food on it, straitening his glasses for him, running her fingers affectionately through his hair, and quickly pecking him on the lips by way of greeting every time she hadn't seen him for a short while.

E2 Barry wasn't much better. He was always wrapping a hand around his wife's waist, pulling her closer to him. He always seemed to be touching her, his hand pressed against the small of her back to lead her through doorways and, occasionally, even brushing up against her ass.

The small gestures and touches didn't go unnoticed by the other occupants of house. Iris watched them closely with curiosity, while Joe had to stop himself from glaring at the young couple or from knocking E2 Barry's lights out. He kept reminding himself that the two of them were married and that it wasn't really his daughter that the other Barry was touching all the time.

Unless you count the one time that it _was_ his daughter. Thankfully Joe wasn't there to see that awkward exchange though. Iris was alone washing the dishes after dinner one night when she suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap around her. She stiffened when she felt E2 Barry press his body against hers from behind.

"Umm," she said awkwardly, not moving a muscle. E2 Barry was oblivious to her lack of response though. He was too busy pressing light kisses to what he thought was his wife's neck.

"Umm, Barry?" she squeaked. She could feel all of the contours of his body pressed up against hers and his strong arms wrapped securely around her. When she felt his hot breath on the nape of her neck, she felt a heat rising up inside of her, and her face started to feel flushed when he spoke in a low husky voice in her ear.

"I just found something in the other Barry's nightstand drawer that you and I could put to good use," he said to her in a seductive tone that she had never heard come from Barry's voice before, "I want to fuck you till you can't see straight."

"Barry!" she squealed, breaking free from his hold and spinning around to face him. E2 Barry looked at her with a confused expression.

"You don't think he'll mind, do you?" he asked her, straightening his glasses nervously, "I don't think he'd even notice if a few went missing…"

"Barry, I—"

"I know what you're going to say," he said, cutting her off, "It would be weird being in your dad's house, but we can just pretend we're in our house. Or we can pretend like we're back in high school, sneaking around like old times. It'll be fun. Kinky even."

Iris tried not to laugh at how enthusiastic E2 Barry was. He had just went from sexy and seductive to adorable and fumbling in a matter of seconds.

"Barry, I'm not—"

She was cut off abruptly when his lips crashed into hers, silencing her and taking her completely by surprise. Before she even had a chance to react, he broke away from her, his face inches away from her own and hands wrapping tightly around her, pulling her hips up against his own.

"Please, Baby. I want you so bad," he whispered, resting his forehead against her shoulder, "We've been on the run for so long. I just want to be with you. I don't want to waste this opportunity."

"Barry," Iris tried again, "I'm not your—"

"What is going on in here?" Iris heard another voice ask loudly, and she recognized the voice to be her own. E2 Barry pulled away from their awkward embrace to see his wife standing in the doorway, staring wide-eyed at the two of them. He looked back at Iris and then at his wife again, back and forth between the two identical women with a horrified look on his face.

"Oh my gosh," he said abruptly, taking a full step back from Iris as if she was suddenly toxic. "Baby," he said to his wife, "I'm so sorry. I thought she was…"

E2 Barry's face was bright red, and he looked like he wanted to self-destruct on the spot. Iris felt the same way, wishing she could just disappear. She wished she were anywhere but here, standing in this awkward kitchen with the earth 2 couple. What had she gotten herself into?!

E2 Iris just stood there, looking at her husband, whose ears were now also red, and then at the earth 1 version of herself, who was looking at the floor with a mortified expression on her face. After a few painful seconds, E2 Iris couldn't stop herself from erupting with laughter.

"Oh, honey," she laughed, striding up to her husband to wrap her arms around his neck, "Forget being late for our wedding. I am never going to let you live this down. Ever."

You could've fried an egg on E2 Barry's face with how badly it was burning. Iris could feel her face burning too from the awkward situation. She escaped the kitchen as soon as possible, and none of them mentioned what had happened in the kitchen to Joe or Barry. Iris thought she would die of embarrassment if they knew about it.

Throughout the rest of the night, her face would heat up every time she thought about the whole exchange. When she was lying in bed later that night, however, she felt as if her entire body was heating up when as she revisited the memory, but she was heating up in a completely different way. Something inside her purred when she thought about how Barry's body had felt pressed up against her own. How Barry's lips had felt against her neck along with his hot, tickling breath. How Barry's tongue had felt when it just barely breeched past her lips when he kissed her, as if to tease her. No. Not Barry's. _Earth two_ Barry's. And it wasn't her that he was kissing. He had thought he was kissing his wife. It wasn't real. None of it was real.

Iris of course then couldn't help but picture a scenario in which it _was_ real. A scenario that didn't include an earth two Barry, but _her_ Barry. The real Barry. A scenario where they weren't interrupted…

No. She couldn't seriously be thinking about this! This is Barry we're talking about! She can't be picturing him this way. It wasn't right. She didn't feel that way about him. At least, she didn't think she did…

Iris was never going to get any sleep with all these thoughts about Barry bouncing around in her head. It didn't help that she knew what was probably going on in Barry's bedroom right next to her. At least they had the curtesy to be quiet about it. Or maybe their little kitchen mix up had killed the mood. Ugh. She was not seriously thinking about this right now. She was not seriously lying in bed straining her ears to see if she could hear the earth 2 versions of her and Barry going at it. That would just be weird.

…..

Barry was seriously starting to miss his bedroom. He didn't really mind sleeping on the couch. It was just a bit of an inconvenience for him considering all of his clothes and possessions were in his room, and he didn't exactly want to intrude on the young married couple. That would just be awkward. The only problem was that they liked to sleep late, and he had to get ready for work in the morning. He quickly learned that he had to pull out whatever clothes and things he needed for the next day ahead of time so he wouldn't have to intrude on them in the morning as he was getting ready. Every now and then he would forget something though, and he would just flash in and out of the room before they even knew he was there. Somehow, that made him just feel more creepy and awkward about it though.

E2 Barry didn't go to work with Barry again. After E2 Barry told him about the tense moment he had with Singh, Barry decided it wouldn't be smart to risk it, even if he found the idea of messing with his boss's head just a little bit funny. The young earth 2 couple didn't have much to do during the day, so they went to STAR labs. At least there they felt somewhat useful. They were able to help the others with formulating a plan against Zoom. E2 Barry, to Wells' dismay, started helping with the tachyon enhancement device.

When Barry arrived at STAR labs after work, it was to find E2 Barry and Harry in a heated argument as he walked past Cisco's workshop on his way to the cortex.

"I said I don't want your help!" Harry was growling at him, "I didn't ask you for advice!"

"You're not listening to me though," E2 Barry was saying enthusiastically, "If you apply Einstein's theory of relativity, you'll realize that as the tachyons gain speed, they'll also gain mass. You need to be able to compensate for this if you're going to contain—"

"As it happens, Allen, I happen to be an expert in micro technology, and…"

Barry didn't listen to the rest as he walked away, shaking his head. Those two were worse than Wells and Cisco together. The only difference was that E2 Barry idolized Harry, which also happened to annoy the shit out of the man.

"You're late, man," Cisco said as Barry entered the cortex.

"Sorry," Barry sighed, "Got held up by a last minute case that came in."

He changed quickly into his Flash suit and then looked around the room.

"Where's Caitlin?" he asked, seeing that Cisco and the two Iris's were the only ones in the room.

"I think she's calibrating the MRI machine," Cisco answered.

"For what?" Barry asked, "More tests?"

"Something about wanting a detailed 3D scan of your liver," Cisco said with a shrug, "If you ask me, her fascination with your organs and needing to take pictures of them is getting to be a bit creepy."

The two Irises laughed. Barry laughed too, but he felt somewhat uncomfortable. Caitlin _did_ tend to go overboard sometimes.

Barry decided to start his daily patrol off by doing his usual surveillance loop through the city. After Barry had left on Flash duty and Cisco went to go see if Caitlin needed help calibrating her MRI machine, the two Irises were left alone in the cortex.

"So Iris," E2 Iris said slowly, "I think I owe you an apology. Well, really my husband does, but I don't think he can even look you in the eye right now, so I'm going to apologize for him."

"Please," Iris said with a dismissive wave of her hand, "It's fine. It was an accident."

"Still, I have to at least say sorry that my husband tried to shove his tongue down your throat."

Iris just laughed uncomfortably.

"It's okay," she said, smiling, "Really, he's a pretty good kisser."

She felt her cheeks burn after the words had escaped her lips. She looked nervously at E2 Iris, but the other woman only laughed.

"Yeah, he is, isn't he?" she giggled, "But I have to say, seeing your Barry running around in that suit has been a major turn on."

"W-what?" Iris asked.

"Well, I know it's not really him," E2 Iris said with an embarrassed giggle, "But seeing this version of my husband, so confident and strong, wearing that tight leather suit…It's pretty sexy, even if it's not really him."

Iris really didn't know what to say to that. Her earth 2 double sometimes had the bad habit of saying whatever awkward or embarrassing thing was on her mind. Even now, she continued on, bold and unabashed.

"My Barry wasn't too happy when I told him that," E2 Iris laughed, "I didn't think it was possible to get jealous of yourself, but my husband managed it somehow. He was fuming when I was talking about how good his ass looked in leather. But hey, can you blame me really?" she asked with a laugh.

"No," Iris found herself agreeing with a blush, "I don't blame you. Barry does look pretty great in red…and in leather."

Suddenly, Barry's voice rang out over the com system.

"Umm, you two know your hand is on the com, right?" Barry asked awkwardly.

Iris looked down in shock to see that she had been resting her elbow over the speaker button on the com system, allowing Barry to hear the better part of their conversation. Shit. How long had it been on? Had he heard everything?

"Oh, and it's not leather," Barry's voice continued, sounding a bit smug, "It's reinforced tripolymer—"

"Yeah, yeah, Barry. We get it," Iris shot back at him with a groan. She was not looking forward to seeing his self-satisfied grin to match his smug voice when he returned. Having their earth 2 doppelgangers around sure was making for some awkward moments between the two of them.


	5. Take a Chance on it

"If we could just find out the frequency that Zoom vibrates at, maybe we can create some device to take him down," E2 Barry suggested hopefully.

"How are we supposed to find that out?" Cisco asked incredulously, "It's not like Zoom is going to just waltz in here and let us run a bunch of tests on him."

"Actually, that's exactly what he did," Barry said. Then he looked at Caitlin, "Do you still have all the data you collected from 'Jay' when we first met him?"

"I do," Caitlin said, but she bit her lip, "The only thing is that most of it is unreliable, considering he was just slipping me false samples the whole time when my back was turned."

Barry sighed in disappointment.

"Maybe we don't need to know Zoom's frequency," E2 Barry said suddenly, "Maybe we just need to know the vibrational patterns that the speedforce operates at. If we can disrupt those, maybe we can take away Zoom's speed, at least temporarily."

Caitlin nodded enthusiastically.

"I think we might be able to do that," she said excitedly, "Barry can give us whatever samples we need."

She left the room in an instant to grab her blood collecting kit, returning quickly. Without a word of complaint, Barry rolled up his sleeve and held out his arm and allowed her to take whatever samples she wanted from him. E2 Iris seemed to be surveying him closely, although he didn't really know why. When Caitlin and his double left the room to study their fresh samples, Barry stood from his chair, slowly pulling his shirt sleeve back down.

"You're a really good sport about all of this, you know that?" E2 Iris's voice said from behind him. Barry turned to look at her. She was still giving him that same surveying look.

"What do you mean?" Barry asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"I mean all of this medical stuff. You never complain," she said, "You always just let Caitlin run whatever tests and take whatever samples she wants, and I haven't heard you complain once about it."

"They're not that bad," Barry said dismissively with a smile.

"No, they're not," she agreed, "But I could see how you might find them exhausting after a while. She's given you three MRIs this week alone. Not to mention all of the treadmill analysis exercises you guys have been doing. I've also completely lost count of how many blood samples she's taken from you this week. It seems like an everyday thing."

"It is," Barry said, "She likes to monitor my blood sugar and electrolytes among other things. She's taking care of me."

He didn't know why, but he felt like he had to explain this to her. Caitlin wasn't always just trying to use him for medical research. She was also trying to take care of him. It was all a part of her job as his doctor.

"I know she is," E2 Iris said understandingly, "I just could see how you might start to feel a bit…used sometimes."

Barry shook his head firmly.

"I don't feel used," he assured her, "From the start, I've only wanted to help people, and I'm willing to do that both as the Flash and as…"

"As a test subject," E2 Iris finished for him.

"It's not like that," Barry said in a strained voice, "Caitlin and Cisco aren't trying to use me. They've always done right by me, and I trust them wholeheartedly."

"I do too, Barry," E2 Iris said calmly, "I just wanted to doublecheck that you're really okay with all of this. I don't want you to be forced into doing things you don't want to do."

"I'm fine," Barry assured her, "They would never force me to do anything against my will. They've always been respectful of my wishes and my rights."

"Good," E2 Iris said with a warm smile, "Sorry, Barry. I didn't mean to upset you. I think it's just the cop in me coming out."

Barry smiled at her.

"It's okay," he said, "I appreciate you checking in and caring about me."

His smiled almost looked sad to her. It didn't quite reach his eyes, and he looked down as he spoke.

"It's not just me, you know," she said to him, "She cares about you too. Your Iris. She cares about you a lot. She loves you."

Barry smiled sadly at her.

"Not enough though," he said quietly.

…..

"Wow, someone looks fancy today," E2 Iris said as Barry came into the kitchen wearing a dress shirt and tie.

"I have court," Barry answered curtly.

Iris and Joe both exchanged a knowing glance. Barry hated it when he had to testify at court trials. It wasn't that often, but every now and then they would need a forensic specialist there for "evidence consultation." Barry absolutely hated it.

"But it's Saturday," Iris protested.

"Tell that to the captain," Barry said bitterly.

He didn't mean to be snippy. He just really hated wasting his day off in court. He also hadn't even gone to bed the night before because of a busy night out on Flash duty. Needless to say, Barry was more than a little wiped out and cranky.

"Well, when you go up to the stand, just make sure you speak with confidence," E2 Iris advised, thinking maybe Barry just hated public speaking and was nervous about standing and talking in front of everyone.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," Joe said with a shake of his head, "Barry knows how to talk in front of a crowd. You should have seen his valedictorian speech at his graduation ceremony."

Barry rolled his eyes at his overly proud foster dad.

"It's not the public speaking part I dislike," Barry assured her, "I just think it's a huge waste of time for me to go in just to authenticate a simple GRT. Since when do they need a specialist present just to verify a gun residue test? Anyone can do that!"

Joe and Iris both looked at each other. They both knew that wasn't the only reason Barry hated giving forensic testimonies. Barry hated it because it all reminded him of his father's trial after his mother's murder. He hadn't been allowed to attend as a kid, but he had seen enough of it on the news to know what all happened during the trial. He hated it. He hated all of it. He hated the judge. He hated the jury. The lawyers. He hated everything about court.

Just setting foot in the courthouse, the same one where his dad had been convicted, still upset him to this day. It had gotten a bit easier since his dad had been freed, but Barry was still somewhat bitter that the justice system had failed his father so badly. This was why vigilantes were necessary. When the law failed, someone needed to take matters into their own hands. Barry understood that, and he believed it fully.

They had tried to tell Barry that he should really sit down for breakfast with them so he could eat a decent meal, but Barry insisted that he was late and would have to make do with Cisco's calorie bars. They all sat around the breakfast table after he had left.

"That's too bad Barry's not going to be around today," Joe said sulkily, "I was going to ask him for his help working on the car. Wally said he'd take a look at it for me, but he decided not to come home from school this weekend."

"Probably for the best," Iris said, "How exactly are we planning on explaining the fact that there are two of me and Barry living in our house?"

"Yeah, I haven't quite figured that one out yet," Joe admitted.

"What car?" E2 Barry asked, "You're working on a car?"

"Yeah," Joe said with a sigh, "I'm trying to. I haven't driven it in years. It's vintage and a collectible, but it doesn't run quite right. Barry was going to help me fix it if Wally couldn't."

"I'm surprised you would let Barry anywhere near your car," Iris said with a laugh, "Didn't you say neither of us were allowed to even touch it?"

"Yeah, well last I checked it was you who was driving when you and Barry wrapped my last one around a tree while you were joy riding," Joe said.

"We were sixteen!" Iris said, "When are you going to let that go?"

"I'm starting to," Joe said with a laugh.

"Remember when we took _my_ dad's car?" E2 Iris asked her husband with a grin, "And he caught us making out in it?"

E2 Barry blushed.

"I'll never forget the look on Joseph's face," he said with a shudder.

He couldn't help but glance nervously at Joe, even though he knew it wasn't the same man. E2 Barry cleared his throat before changing the subject.

"Well, I know a thing or two about cars," he said sheepishly, "I could take a look at it if you want."

His wife smiled widely at him. He had completely given up on making an effort to get along with her late father on their own earth. She was glad to see him trying to get to know this earth's version at least.

"That would be great!" Joe said happily, smiling at E2 Barry who then smiled back nervously. He was really hoping he wouldn't regret this later.

…..

Iris didn't know why she was so fixated on watching the earth 2 couple version of her and Barry. She tried not to stare, but she couldn't help it. The way they were constantly looking at each other, sharing the same small smile, as if they knew some sort of secret that no one else knew. It somewhat reminded her of the way Barry and her often looked at each other. Being best friends, they had always shared these looks, almost as if they could communicate telepathically with their eyes, like they had their own secret club. Of course, now she knew that in those moments Barry hadn't been looking at her as a friend. He had been looking at her in love.

Iris was definitely sure now that she without a doubt felt something more for Barry. Her feelings for him were more than just what someone feels for a best friend. She felt something for him romantically. The only problem was whether or not she should act on those feelings. She knew she didn't have to worry about rejection. It was simple. She liked Barry, and Barry liked her. This should be easy. She already knew Barry returned her feelings. That, in itself, was the problem though. Barry had held his feelings for her in for years, and she was only just now recognizing hers for what they were. She couldn't confess these feelings to him unless she was sure. To go and get his hopes only to break his heart all over again would just be cruel.

And then there was always that fear of change that was holding her back. What if she and Barry really were to take their relationship to that next level? Things would forever change between the two of them, more so than they already had. What if down the road things didn't work out between them? Would their friendship survive that? Was her friendship with Barry something she was willing to risk just so she could explore the possibility of a relationship with him?

Iris suddenly thought to herself that maybe she was being a little presumptuous. Maybe Barry didn't even harbor those feelings for her anymore. Maybe he had actually moved on, and she had missed her chance. She certainly had felt that way when he was dating Patty and things were getting serious between the two of them. But now Barry was single again. Except, he wasn't exactly doing anything to make her think he still had those feelings for her. When she had mentioned to him about her boss asking her out, he had been so supportive. He had even showed her that video he had taken of Eddie a year ago to help her move on. He had actually _encouraged_ her to go out with somebody else, and that was after he and Patty had already broken up. Maybe he really had just moved on, and she should do the same.

Even when they went out to the club that night with the rest of the group, Iris had tried to read Barry to see how he truly felt, but she was left only feeling more confused after that night.

 _"_ _If we ever do get married, promise me we won't do_ that _dance at our wedding."_

 _"_ _I promise. About the dance thing, not the wedding thing,"_ he had added quickly.

Iris was surprised by how disappointed she had been from his response. Really, though. What had she expected? Him to get down on one knee and propose on the spot and announce his undying love for her?

No. Iris was too late. Barry had moved on now, and even if he hadn't, she still had her other reasons for not wanting to explore their relationship any further. Still though. Having this earth 2 version of them so happily married and displaying their love in front of everyone all the time was starting to get to her. She felt a squeezing sensation in her heart every time she saw them so happy together. She wanted that. She wanted that with Barry, with _her_ Barry. She was just too afraid to reach for it.

"Is something wrong?" E2 Iris asked as they were cleaning up the dining room table after breakfast. Joe and E2 Barry had already disappeared to the garage, E2 Barry with an extremely nervous look on his face.

"No," Iris replied quietly as she picked up a plate, "Just thinking."

"About Barry," E2 Iris said, not a question.

Iris gave her a weak smile, affirming the other woman's conclusion.

"It's just," Iris said, somewhat at a loss for words, "You and your Barry always seem so happy together. You two seem to have the perfect relationship. I just don't know if that would ever be possible with my Barry. He and I are perfect as best friends. I will never have another friendship quite like my friendship with Barry. I just don't know if we would be compatible the same way that you two are, as more than friends."

"There's only one way to find out," E2 Iris said with a wink.

Iris sighed heavily, despite the other woman's light tone.

"I don't want to risk our friendship," she said quietly, "If Barry and I were together, and things didn't work out…I couldn't bear to lose my best friend."

"Iris," the other woman said seriously, "You love Barry, right?"

Iris nodded. She loved Barry in the most confusing way. She loved him in more ways than one.

"And Barry is clearly in love with you," E2 Iris said, "When love is real, you'll know it. When you have it, you trust it. You believe in it and take a chance on it. Your friendship with Barry isn't going to go anywhere. It'll just become something better. My Barry and I were friends for years before we took that next step, and he is still my best friend, just in a more complete sense of the word."

Iris sighed.

"I don't know," she said, "You make it's seem so simple, and you and your husband make it look easy but…"

"The way I see it, your friendship with Barry has already changed," E2 Iris said bluntly, "And I understand that that scares you. You want things to go back to the way they were before. They won't. You can't go back. All you can do now is move forward."

Iris nodded slowly.

"And my husband and I aren't perfect," E2 Iris added, "We have arguments all the time. It just comes with the territory. In fact, we just had a huge argument last night."

"You did?" Iris asked in surprise. They seemed as if they never fought.

"Yeah," E2 Iris said with a sigh. She actually seemed somewhat upset by it.

"Looks like I'm not the only one who needs to talk," Iris said with an understanding smile, "What's wrong?"

E2 Iris sighed again.

"It's complicated," she said, "For over a year now, Barry and I haven't been agreeing on something. He's become more and more adamant about it, and it's been putting strain on our relationship."

"What is the argument about?" Iris asked curiously.

E2 Iris gave her a serious look before answering, "Barry wants to have a baby."

"Oh," Iris said, not expecting that response, "And you don't?"

"Of course I do!" the other woman said insistently, "I want to have a baby just as much as he does. He'll make a great father, and I want nothing more than to have his children."

"Then what's the problem?" Iris asked in confusion. The two would clearly make excellent parents, and they seemed deeply in love. She couldn't see what the problem was.

"Zoom," E2 Iris answered darkly.

"Oh."

"The timing is terrible," E2 Iris continued, "With everything that's happening back on our Earth, I wasn't ready to bring a baby into that world. Until now, Barry had always reluctantly agreed with me, but now he's pressing this again, and I don't know what to do."

"I guess I understand your confusion," Iris said, unsure what advice she could give to the other woman.

"Barry thinks that because we're safe now and the breaches are closed, we should be trying to build a new life. He's content to stay here and start again in a new world where we're safe. He's been talking about bringing our closest friends and family over to this world, and he thinks we should all just stay here permanently, safe from Zoom."

"Wow," Iris said, taking in this information. She had never considered this as possibly being a permanent thing. "But what about the rest of your Earth?"

"I know," E2 Iris said sadly, "I don't want to leave them all to Zoom's mercy. At the same time though, my husband and I for the past year have risked our lives to stop Zoom, and that ended with us being hunted and nearly killed by him. Your Barry saved us just in time. I don't know if our Earth is still savable at this point. Maybe my husband is right. Maybe we _should_ just stay safe and get away from it all while we still can."

"You know my Barry isn't ever going to let it go, right?" Iris asked seriously, "He won't be able to leave an entire world in the hands of Zoom. He's going to try to stop him no matter what."

E2 Iris nodded slowly.

"And he should," she said, "Even if it's not really his burden to bear, someone has to stop Zoom, and Barry probably has the best chance of that. He's going to try either way, and that leaves for a lot of uncertainty about the future. My husband is so eager to move on, he's blinding himself to the issues that still exist. He's so anxious to start a family that he's ready to ignore all the reasons why we still can't. I've been trying to make him see reason, but I can't convince him. He's insistent that it's our time to finally be selfish for once. It's our chance to do what makes us happy and to actually have a life. For so long, our lives were centered around Zoom. He thinks that now is our chance to start over again, to start fresh."

"At least he's trying to stay positive," Iris pointed out, "He's just trying to make the best of your situation. I know it can't be easy for you guys, leaving your old lives behind you, starting over in a new place, an entirely different world. At least he's trying to make the most of it."

"I appreciate my husband's positivity," E2 Iris assured her, "I always have. I just don't want his optimism to cloud his judgement. I want him to be realistic. Now is definitely not the time for us to start trying to have a baby."

"Yeah," Iris said quietly, "You're probably right."

Iris felt they're disappointment right alongside with them. They clearly both really wanted a family, but they couldn't do that with so much uncertainty looming over them. Iris felt incredibly bad for both E2 Barry and Iris. It didn't seem fair that they had already sacrificed so much in the fight against Zoom, and even now they were still making sacrifices.

"Everything is going to work out in the end," Iris assured her, "It might all seem scary and uncertain right now, but things have a way of working themselves out."

"Thank you," E2 Iris said with a warm smile.

Iris smiled back at her, but she knew that her words couldn't have been much comfort to her double. No one knew how things were going to turn out, and no one could actually guarantee that everything was going to be okay.

…..

"You didn't tell me that the car was foreign," E2 Barry said, looking under the hood of the car with a confused look on his face. He was completely at a loss where to begin. The engine looked like it was made on another planet. Really, to him though, it was.

"It's not foreign," Joe said, confused, "It's American."

"This engine layout doesn't make any sense," E2 Barry said, reaching under the hood to tinker with it.

"It's a pretty standard engine," Joe said, "I don't know much about cars, but it looks normal to me."

"Maybe cars are built differently on your earth then," E2 Barry said as worked on trying to figure out how the engine worked and what went where. It was all backwards to him.

"Maybe," Joe said with a laugh, "It's okay if you can't fix it. Wally or Barry will get to it eventually."

"I'll give it a try," E2 Barry said, already busy at work taking things apart. Joe didn't understand any of it, but he looked like he knew what he was doing, so Joe just stood back and let him do his thing.

"So," E2 Barry said, trying to make small talk as he worked, "Does Wally usually come home often? It would be great to see him again. I've missed Wally. _Our_ Wally, I mean. He went to school out of state."

"You have a Wally on your earth?" Joe asked.

"Of course," E2 Barry answered, "Why wouldn't we?"

"Oh," Joe said, "I don't know. I guess it just feels weird considering we only just found out about Wally a few months ago. It's all so new to us."

"What do you mean 'just found out about him'?"

"We didn't even know he existed until now," Joe explained, "My wife walked out on us when Iris was very young. I never knew that she had been pregnant when she left and that I've had a son all these years that I never knew about. It's been kind of hard, finding out about all of this and getting to know Wally."

"Wow, that's intense," E2 Barry said, looking up from his work, "I can't imagine what that must be like, for all of you guys."

"Yeah it's been tough," Joe said, nodding, "So, what is your Wally like? On your earth?"

"He's great!" E2 Barry said enthusiastically, "I've known him for as long as I've known Iris. He and I have always been close. We're practically brothers anyways, so I really couldn't ask for a better brother-in-law."

"Really?" Joe asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah," E2 Barry answered, "Why the tone of surprise?"

"No reason," Joe said quickly, "It's just that my Barry and Wally haven't exactly clicked yet. They haven't been hostile or anything towards each other, but they both haven't really gotten the chance to get to know each other so far. Actually, I get the feeling that Wally feels somewhat threatened by Barry."

"Why is that?" E2 Barry asked.

"I don't know," Joe said, "I think it's because of my relationship with Barry. He got to be my son for years, and now Wally's entering the picture and I think he feels the need to…I don't know…compete. It's been making it hard for Barry and Wally to get along and get to know each other."

"That must be hard," E2 Barry said, "I never had that problem with my Wally. He and I were practically like brothers, but his father, your earth 2 counterpart, he never really took a liking to me. We didn't ever have to worry about vying for his affection. There was no sibling rivalry feeling to our friendship."

"That would be nice," Joe said, wishing his two sons could get along in the same way. After a moment of thought, he added, "Why didn't your Joe like you?"

E2 Barry laughed lightly at that.

"Simple," he said, "From the beginning, he knew that I loved his daughter."

Joe laughed lightly then too.

"Yeah," he said, "I've watched my Barry be in love with my daughter for years. I know what that's like."

"But you never hated him for it?" E2 Barry asked curiously, "You never felt the need to shield Iris from him, like my wife's father did with me?"

"Are you kidding?" Joe said, "I've been trying to push those two together for years."

E2 Barry didn't look at him for a moment or two as he thought that over.

"Maybe it was because you knew him better," he said quietly, "You helped raise him, and you felt closer to him."

"Yeah, that's probably it," Joe agreed, "Lord knows I've found reasons to dislike all of the other men in Iris's life. I never felt the need to protect her from Barry though. I know he would never hurt her, and nothing would make me happier than to see them both happy together."

"You and Barry really are close, aren't you?" E2 Barry quietly observed.

Joe smiled.

"Yeah, we are," he said proudly, "I really do consider Barry like a son to me. He's just as much of a son to me as Wally is. Bringing Wally into my life won't change that."

"It must have been hard," E2 Barry said, ducking his head back down by the car engine as he worked.

"What?" Joe asked.

"Raising Barry," E2 Barry elaborated, "It must have been hard raising a kid who had lost his parents like that. My double's childhood was drastically different from my own. It still continues to shock me. I can't imagine what it would have been like if my mom had died and my dad had been put away for it. I grew up with both parents, and I never had to suffer the losses that this earth's Barry did."

"Yeah, Barry's been through a lot," Joe agreed sadly.

"I was a bit envious of him at first," E2 Barry admitted.

"You were?" Joe said, "Why?"

"He's a superhero," E2 Barry said, as if it was obvious, "He has superpowers and he fights crime. Even my wife seemed a bit infatuated with him when we first got here."

"Right," Joe said with a laugh, "I guess I can sort of see where you're coming from."

"I don't envy him anymore though," E2 Barry said thoughtfully, "As cool as it would be to have superspeed, I would not want to trade lives with your Barry. Seeing his life here, it's made me appreciate how great my own life is on my earth. I have both parents. I have a boss that doesn't treat me like dirt. And I have Iris. I wouldn't switch places with him even if I could."

"Well, I'd like to think that Barry wouldn't want to switch either," Joe said, "I'd like to think that he's happy enough with his own life, even if it's not exactly perfect."

E2 Barry nodded understandingly.

"I'm sorry, Joseph," he said after a moment, straightening up from the car, "I don't think I can fix this for you. Your earth's car engines just don't make any sense to me."

"That's alright," Joe said with a laugh, closing the hood of the car. With an apologetic look, E2 Barry turned to head back into the house.

"Oh, and Barry," Joe said, stopping him. E2 Barry turned to look at him again. "I won't call you Bartholomew if you don't call me Joseph."

E2 Barry smiled at him.

"Sounds good," he said, "Joe."

…..

Barry didn't return home from court until the late afternoon. He walked through the front door with an irritated look on his face.

"How was it, Bar?" Joe asked nervously.

"Awful," Barry spat, sitting down on the couch, rubbing his tired eyes, "The defendant's lawyer was grasping at straws, making outrageous claims, saying I tampered with the evidence and my latex test was a false positive because of the gloves I wear to crime scenes. I had to prove to them all that I wear latex-free gloves. It was absolutely ridiculous."

"Why would you want to tamper with evidence?" Joe asked, laughing lightly at the idea.

"I don't know," Barry said, "The lawyer was attacking the entire department, saying we were all in on it and we were all out to get his client."

Joe just laughed.

"There's no way the jury believed that."

"You'd be surprised by what people will believe," Barry said humorlessly, "The media makes cops out to be the bad guys all the time. Plus, everyone loves a good controversy. Never mind the lunacy of the idea. You know how many people would have to be in on it to pull something like that off? It's just ridiculous that anyone would take that lawyer's claims seriously."

"It's like the Avery trial all over again," Joe said quietly, "Sorry, you had to deal with that, Bar. It sucks being accused of tampering with evidence. I've had it happen to me, myself."

Barry nodded.

"Yeah, I remember," he said bitterly.

Just then, E2 Barry and the two Irises joined them in the living room.

"You should take a nap, Barry," Iris said immediately, "You look exhausted."

"Yeah," Barry said, stifling a yawn, "I think you're probably right. I should get some rest before going out on patrol."

"Bar, maybe you should skip Flash duty tonight," Joe said gently, "We can leave it to the police for one night."

"I'm fine," Barry said, yawning again, "Once I get some sleep and some food, I'll have plenty of energy."

"He's right, Barry," E2 Iris said, "You're overstressing yourself. You need a break. You need to have some fun for once."

When Barry still didn't look convinced, she continued.

"I know!" she said excitedly, "We should all go out tonight!"

"What?" E2 Barry asked, looking at his wife like she had just suggested something ludicrous.

"Come on, Babe. It'll be fun," she whined, "You're the one who keeps saying we need to let loose and live a little now that we're safe."

"Yeah," he said, "But you know I was saying that in a different context. Going out wasn't what I meant."

"Well, I'm all for it," Iris said happily, smiling at her double, "How 'bout you, Bar?"

Barry looked around at all of them for a moment before giving them a small smile.

"Alright," he said, "I suppose we've all been working hard and deserve a night out. I'll give Cisco and Caitlin a call and see if they want to come too."

"Great!" E2 Iris said, grinning ear to ear, "After Barry gets some much needed rest, we'll all go out and have some fun! Tonight's going to be great!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, this chapter was mostly dialogue. I won't be writing Barry out of the next chapter though, and it will have a lot more going on ;)
> 
> Please, let me know what you think, both with the two Iris's girl talk and with Joe's and E2 Barry's little heart to heart.


	6. Verdant

**I know it's been a while! Sorry, guys! I hope you guys love awkward situations as much as I do because this chapter has plenty of them ;)**

**.....**

"Isn't Barry coming?" E2 Barry asked as they were getting into their cars.

"It's a three hour drive," Iris said, "He's had a long day and he's exhausted, so he's going to rest for a while and then meet us there. He can make the trip in about ten minutes anyways."

"Alright then," E2 Barry said with a shrug.

E2 Barry had insisted on driving. He said it was something he really missed doing since they came to this earth, so Iris didn't protest as she handed over her car keys and climbed into the back, allowing the earth 2 couple to occupy the front.

She couldn't help but notice it when E2 Barry reached over while he was driving to grab his wife's hand. Iris stared at their two hands, conjoined on the center counsel in front of her, thinking about what it would be like to hold her Barry's hand like that. She had held his hand before of course, plenty of times, but now things were different.

They didn't ever really hold hands anymore. In fact, they hardly ever touched at all now. They had always been very touchy feely with each other when they were best friends, but everything changed between them when Barry had confessed his feelings for her. Now they didn't touch. They didn't hug each other like they used to, didn't lean against each other when they were cuddled up watching a movie.

Really, now that she thought about it, they didn't really have movie nights anymore either. They didn't hang out like they used to do when they were simply best friends and not…whatever they were now. Iris missed it. She missed how things used to be, and she wanted desperately for things to go back to normal. She wanted to be close with Barry again. He was her best friend in the world, and she wanted so bad to feel that closeness with him again.

But her double was right. There was no going back, only moving forward. Iris thought about what it would be like to go back to the way things were before, and she came to the realization that she _didn't_ want things to be the way they used to be. She wanted them to be _better_. She wanted to be close to Barry again, but close in an entirely different way. She wanted what E2 Barry and Iris had. She wanted that with Barry.

When they finally reached Star City, Iris was grateful to get out and stretch her legs. It had been a long drive, and it was somewhat awkward in the vehicle with the earth 2 couple. She was comfortable with them both individually, but it was a bit awkward being alone with the two of them together. She should have driven with the others.

Cisco, Caitlin and Jesse all climbed out of the vehicle that they had parked next to theirs, and the six of them all went inside to check into the hotel. Felicity had insisted that they stay at the mansion for the night, but they had turned her down, not wanting to intrude with their last minute plans to go to Star City.

Unfortunately, there had only been two double-bed rooms available at the hotel, which would work just fine for them. It just meant that someone would have to stay in a room alone with E2 Barry and Iris, which could get a bit weird. Jesse and Caitlin would be sharing a bed in one room with Cisco taking the other bed, and Iris ended up rooming with the earth 2 couple in the room next to them since she was probably the most comfortable out of all them to be in that situation. Really, it wouldn't be that weird, right? They were only going to be using the hotel rooms to crash anyways, so it really wasn't a big deal.

Barry was lucky. He got to run home for the night and didn't have to stay at the hotel with them. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to run the rest of them home with him. He could run people places, sure, but he had superspeed, not superstrength, and carrying that many people in ten minute trips would take over an hour, and Barry would probably be exhausted by the end of it. Hence the hotel.

They left the hotel pretty quickly after getting settled. Cisco insisted that, being only 7:30, it was way too early to go out yet, so they decided to go for a late dinner. Barry met them all at the restaurant, as did Felicity and Oliver, whom Felicity had managed to drag out for the night.

"Wow, this is weird," Felicity said when they met the others just outside of the restaurant, "I feel like I'm seeing double."

The two Barry's and two Iris's all laughed.

"We're still getting used to it ourselves," Iris said.

Felicity and Oliver shook hands with E2 Barry and Iris, as well as Jesse, whom they also hadn't met yet.

"I can't believe this earth has a Green Arrow too," Jesse said thoughtfully after shaking Oliver's hand.

Oliver glared at Barry, who put his hands up defensively.

"Don't look at me," he said, "I didn't tell her."

"Right, because you would never tell anyone my identity," Oliver said sarcastically.

"Name one person who I've told," Barry said.

"Kendra Saunders," Oliver replied immediately.

"Okay, well that's _one_ ," Barry said with a small laugh, "But that was because of an emergency. We needed your help."

Oliver sighed, but then Jesse cut in before he could retort.

"Barry didn't have to tell me anything," she said, "It was easy enough to figure out. Everyone knows the Green Arrow's identity on my earth, and when I read that _you_ were the one who survived the Queen's Gambit on this earth instead of your—"

"Jesse," Barry said suddenly, cutting her off, "I think we should probably go inside and get a table. We don't want to stay too late."

Jesse gave him a confused look but nodded. Oliver looked at him suspiciously, but Barry ignored it as they went inside. He tried to hide his relief that Jesse hadn't let it slip that Oliver's _father_ was the Green Arrow on her earth. Wells had warned him that talking about life in other dimensions could mess with people's heads, and he didn't think letting Oliver know that his father survived on earth 2 instead of him would be the best idea. Oliver could probably handle the information just fine, but why burden him with it at all?

They were all seated fairly quickly thanks to Oliver, and they had one of the nicer, more secluded tables of the restaurant.

"Did you get some sleep, Barry?" Iris asked as they were all sitting down at the long table that had been set for their group.

"Definitely," Barry said with a smile as he sat down across from her, "I feel much better now. Ready for tonight."

"That's my man!" Cisco said, slapping Barry on the back before moving around the table to take his seat, "We're going to turn up tonight!"

The two Barry's ended up sitting next to each other across from the two Iris's, and the wait staff kept giving the two pairs funny looks.

"I've never seen two sets of twins double dating each other before," the waitress laughed as she was setting their salad plates in front of them. The four of them all looked around at each other for a moment before they all started to laugh.

"I wonder where _my_ doppelganger is on this earth," Jesse said thoughtfully once the waitress had walked away.

Cisco coughed.

"I may have found her a few weeks ago," he said quietly.

"What?!" Jesse said, "And you didn't tell me?!"

"You probably don't want to know," Cisco said evasively.

"Why?" Jesse asked, "Where is she? What's she like?"

"She's a stripper," Cisco blurted, not looking Jesse in the eye.

Jesse looked shocked. She definitely had not been expecting that answer. There was an awkward silence around the table for a moment before, suddenly, Barry started to laugh.

"And how would you know that, Cisco?" he asked him with a smirk on his face, "What were you doing in a strip club?"

"I wasn't in a strip club!" Cisco said indignantly, "I found her through facial recognition software!"

"Right," Barry said, enjoying giving Cisco shit, "Okay."

"Shut up, Barry," Cisco said, a smile breaking out on his own face now.

Barry laughed again, and Iris stared at him as the laughter escaped his lips. It had been a while since she had heard Barry laugh like this. He had been so stressed lately with work and with Zoom on top of all the normal Flash stuff. It was good to see his smile and hear his laughter. Barry's laugh was one of her favorite sounds in the world.

Thankfully, it wasn't long before their food came out. The waitress gave Barry a funny look as she set his two orders of food in front of him. Normally Barry didn't order extra food when they went out to eat in public, but he needed the extra calories after the long run from Central City.

Halfway through dinner, Iris noticed Barry jump in his chair slightly. He looked at her questioningly, a funny look on his face, before looking back down at his food, his cheeks going red. Iris was baffled. A moment later, Barry jumped again, though not as noticeably this time, but instead of looking at Iris this time, he looked over at her double, his face bright red with a confused expression on it, before looking down again.

Iris turned her head and looked at her double with curiosity. E2 Iris had a small smile on her face as she stared intensely at her husband, who was sitting next to Barry. Iris didn't really know what to make of it. A few minutes later, Barry shifted slightly in his chair again, his facing turning redder by the minute. E2 Iris was still staring at her husband, but she wasn't smiling anymore. She had a slightly frustrated look on her face as she was staring a hole through him. E2 Barry seemed completely oblivious of course, eating his food while talking to Cisco about some improvements he could make to his facial recognition software program for him.

"Umm, I-Iris?" Barry stuttered suddenly. Iris thought he was talking to her, but when she looked at him, he was looking at E2 Iris.

"That's…that's _my_ leg," he said, his ears going red now to match his face.

"Oh!" E2 Iris said, shifting awkwardly in her chair, "My bad. Sorry, Barry."

Barry muttered that it was fine as E2 Barry gave his wife questioning look. Iris had to fight back the urge to laugh at the situation. It really wasn't funny. But hey, what happened with her and E2 Barry in the kitchen that one night was much worse than having someone accidentally play a little footsie with you under the table. Wow, this E2 couple really needed to be more careful about keeping their hands to themselves.

After dinner the group decided to head over to Verdant which was conveniently within walking distance. By the time they got there it was after nine and people were just starting to really filter into the place. Thanks to Oliver, they were able to surpass the line of people and enter the club right away.

It was dark and very loud inside, and most of them felt a twinge of excitement at the prospect that the night was really only just starting out.

"Right, well, you guys have fun," Oliver said stiffly, "Try to stay out of trouble."

He started heading towards the door that led downstairs, but his path was suddenly blocked by Barry.

"Oh no," Barry said loudly to him over the music, "You're not going to go sulk in your Arrow cave all night. You're going to stay up here with us and have some fun for once."

"I don't _sulk_ , Barry," Oliver said, with an exasperated sigh. But when Felicity glared him down, he knew it was probably pointless to argue. That didn't stop him though.

"But my patrol…" he said.

"Dig's got it covered," Felicity said firmly, "Tonight's about us letting loose and having fun."

"Who knows, Oliver," Barry said, slapping him on the back, "We might actually even get you to _smile_ for once."

"Ha ha," Oliver said flatly.

Then he sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"Fine," he said, "I need a drink then."

Barry grinned at him as he led the way over to the bar, the rest of the group close behind them.

"I'll have a Tanqueray Tom Collins with a twist," Barry said to the bartender, "And she'll have a grapefruit cosmo."

Iris beamed at him. Barry knew her all too well.

"It's too bad I won't be able to feel this," Barry said, sipping his drink.

"Oh! That reminds me!" Caitlin said suddenly, setting her drink down so she could dig through her purse, "I have batch number four for you, Barry."

"Are you sure about this one?" Barry asked skeptically, "The first one didn't last. The second one didn't get me drunk, just knocked me on my ass for the night. And the third one had me puking into the toilet all the way into the next day."

"I'm convinced it's right this time," Caitlin assured him excitedly, handing him a vial.

"That's what you said last time," Barry said, frowning at the clear substance when he held it up to look at it.

"This time I know I'm right though," Caitlin insisted, "I made this one super difficult to metabolize so that the effects last longer for you. A normal person would probably die from alcohol poisoning or liver toxicity if they had even a sip, but for you it should be just like normal alcohol, maybe only _slightly_ stronger."

Barry opened the vial and sniffed it, making a face at the strong smell as his eyes started to water.

"Should I mix it in something?" he asked, gesturing towards his drink, "Or just slam it?"

"Dude, I'd slam it," Cisco said, looking at the small vial in Barry's hand with a revolted look on his face, "Why drag it out longer? That's probably why you puked last time. Because you mixed it in something."

"You're probably right," Barry said.

He looked at the vial with a grimace. With everyone else watching him in anticipation, Barry took a deep breath and then threw the vial back in one go. His face twisted up in disgust as the fluid slid down his throat, protesting the entire way down. Barry coughed a few times after he had swallowed it.

"That's disgusting," he groaned, taking a sip of his drink in an attempt to wash it down. A Tom Collins probably wasn't the best chaser, but Caitlin's concoction made his mixed drink taste like juice.

"Do you feel anything?" Iris asked him, smiling in amusement.

"Sort of," Barry said, "I feel a bit tingly."

Caitlin clapped her hands.

"It's working," she said happily, "I made it so that it would be absorbed and distributed in your body at a slower rate too. That way it doesn't hit you all at once like batch number two did."

Barry laughed. Yeah, he was definitely starting to feel it more now, and it was _great_. He hadn't been drunk in over two years. He had almost forgotten what alcohol feels like.

"Here," Caitlin said, pressing three more vials into Barry's hands, "Just be careful about how much of them you drink. We don't know how they affect you yet, so they might sneak up on you. Also, regular alcohol might affect you too now that your metabolism is impaired, so don't drink too much of that either.

"Yeah, yeah," Barry said, laughing as he pocketed the vials and took another sip of his drink. He hadn't been drunk in two years! He was going to enjoy this. He deserved it.

Cisco quickly made his way to the dance floor, dragging Caitlin and a reluctant Jesse along with him this time. Barry watched them go out to the dance floor and then looked over at Iris to see that she was taking a seat at the bar.

"Oh, no," he said to her, grabbing her hand (sending a wave of electricity up her arm in the process) and gently pulling her from her seat, "We are not going to sit here all night and watch Cisco's crazy dance moves again. We're going to dance. We're _all_ going to dance."

Iris blinked at him.

"Barry, you hate dancing," she said, "You have two left feet."

"It's true," Felicity said, "He does. He was stepping on my feet constantly when we danced at the Queen's party two years ago."

"Yeah, but that was before the lightning," Barry said with a grin, "I'm much more coordinated now."

"Well, I'm all for it," E2 Iris said with a laugh, "Come on, babe."

E2 Barry shook his head.

"I don't think so," he said, laughing lightly, "I'll just watch from here."

His wife sighed at him.

"You never want to dance with me," she pouted.

"I know how you feel," Felicity said understandingly to E2 Iris, "Oliver never wants to dance with me either."

"When have you ever asked me to?" Oliver asked defensively.

"That's true," Felicity admitted fairly, "I've never really asked you to. But only because I knew you wouldn't want to."

"Fair enough, I guess," Oliver said.

"Come on, Oliver," Barry said, "Let's see that party boy side of you we've all read so much about."

Oliver shook his head.

"I'm good here," he said stubbornly.

E2 Iris suddenly went up to Barry and whispered something in his ear, a move that hadn't gone unnoticed by the rest of them. Iris felt a slight twinge of irritation at the sight of it, especially when Barry's face then twisted into a wide smile. Iris didn't know why, but it bothered her for some reason. She had no reason to feel jealous of _herself_. Especially when her other self was happily married to a Barry of her own, a Barry who was also looking at the two of them with a less-than-pleased look on his face.

Maybe what bothered Iris the most was the fact that Barry and E2 Iris seemed to talk almost just as much as she and Barry did, if not more. A friendship had definitely formed there, and Iris had definitely noticed the way E2 Iris acted with Barry, the way she coddled him similar to how she was with her husband, just not as touchy feely and romantic about it. Maybe Iris only found it odd because she had only really bonded with her earth 2 self and not as much with _Barry's_ doppelganger. Barry had gotten to know both _his_ doppelganger _and_ Iris's, but Iris had a hard time connecting with E2 Barry. He could hardly look her in the eye ever since that night in the kitchen when he had mistaken her for his wife.

"Good idea," Barry said to E2 Iris, still grinning. He then walked over to the bar to talk to the bartender, placing a twenty on the bar.

Iris looked suspiciously at her double, wondering what she had said to Barry. A moment later Barry returned with a tray full of shots for all of them.

"What is this?" Iris asked him as he eagerly handed her a shot glass.

"Fireball," he answered with a smile, picking up his own once everyone else had theirs. There were still five more shots left on the tray.

Iris grinned at him. He knew she loved fireball shots, and she would bet anything that the second round he bought them would be salted caramel nut roll, her other favorite.

They all held up their shot glasses in a small toast before all tipping them back at the same time. Barry eagerly handed out the second round of shots to everyone once they had set down their glasses, and he quickly pulled out one of the vials Caitlin had given him to fill his empty shot glass, using about half of the vial's contents to fill it.

Iris smiled at him in amusement as they toasted their second round. This was a side to Barry she never really got to see. They both had gone to different colleges. She knew he used to go out with his friends in college, but she had never really gone out with them. She hadn't seen Barry drunk in years, and tonight seemed as good a night as any to break Barry's sober streak.

Iris laughed at the expression on Barry's face as he choked down his repulsive shot. He wasn't the only one with a disgusted look on his face.

"Ugh," E2 Barry said, wrinkling his nose, "What was that second one? It tastes like caramel. I _hate_ caramel."

"Salted caramel nut roll," Iris answered him, shooting Barry a knowing smile as she licked the sweet taste of the shot off the corner of her upper lip.

She noticed Barry's smile falter slightly as his eyes flitted down to her mouth, staring at the movement. She blushed and looked away, pretending she hadn't noticed his gaze.

"Alright!" E2 Iris yelled excitedly, "Let's dance!"

She giggled as she grabbed her husband's arm and pulled him towards the dance floor. Felicity pushed a reluctant Oliver through the crowd, leaving Iris and Barry standing by the bar. Iris looked back to Barry just in time to see him sway slightly, bracing one hand against a free bar stool.

"You okay?" she asked him, smiling.

"I'm great," he said, laughing at himself, "Just getting used to it. It's been a while. Maybe I won't be as coordinated a dancer as I thought."

She laughed along with him as he then grabbed her hand and led her towards the dance floor. His height made it somewhat easier for him to navigate his way through the crowds of people around them, pulling Iris along with him. It was a good thing she had him to lead her because Iris was hardly paying attention to the crowd of people they were navigating through.

All Iris could focus on was Barry's hand in hers. She had just been wondering earlier how it would feel to hold Barry's hand, and here she was with his fingers wrapped tightly around hers as he guided her through the crowd. She thought she could almost feel a strange, pulsing sensation coming from his hand in hers, like a mysterious hum of energy that seemed to radiate from him at all times. She assumed she was probably just subconsciously sensing the speed force in his system, but Iris didn't really know for sure. Maybe it was all just in her head.

They found the others fairly quickly on the dance floor. Naturally, Cisco was already dancing full swing without a care in the world. Even Caitlin and Jesse had already loosened up and were dancing, having been dragged out to the dance floor by Cisco ten minutes ago.

Iris was shocked when Barry joined in right away. He had always detested dancing, yet here he was letting loose and having fun on the dance floor along with everyone else, zero fucks given. And the weirdest thing was, Barry was actually _good_. Even when he was a little drunk, no one could deny, Barry could dance. Iris couldn't wrap her head around it.

Who was this guy, and what had he done with the adorably awkward and fumbling Barry Allen she knew?

The lightning had given Barry more than just speed and new-found coordination. It had given him something else, and Iris finally realized what that was. Confidence.

"Come on, Iris," Barry yelled over the music, grinning as he grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to the group.

She hadn't even realized that she had been just standing there, watching Barry dance. She soon found that the only thing better than watching Barry dance was dancing _with_ him. It felt good. Like all the awkwardness and things that were left unsaid between them disappeared. There was nothing complicated about it. Here, on the dance floor with loud music blaring while slightly tipsy under the influence of alcohol, everything seemed so simple. He was simply Barry, and she was Iris, and that's all that mattered.

Iris didn't focus on the rest of it. She hardly even paid mind to the fact that the others were all still there, dancing near them. All she saw was Barry, and for a moment, the two of them locked eyes with each other as they were dancing, and it seemed like everyone else in the nightclub had disappeared.

"Sorry," Barry muttered suddenly, taking his hand off Iris's hip.

Iris hadn't even noticed him put it there at first, and apparently, neither had he. Iris smiled at him and took his hand, guiding it towards her to place it back on her hip. Barry gave her a confused look at first, like he was trying to read her and understand her actions, but she simply smiled at him and then he smiled back.

She didn't see much hesitation from Barry after that.

They spent the better part of the evening alternating between drinking and dancing with each other.

Iris found that the more she drank, the closer she seemed to want to be to Barry. As they danced, they seemed to constantly get closer and closer to each other, and there were a few times throughout the night when their body's were even pressed together. Iris knew this was a bad idea. She knew she was just teasing Barry at this point, that it was wrong for her to align her hips with his like this as they danced, wrong to run her hands up and down his back and his chest, wrong to "accidently" brush her ass up against him when her back was turned to him.

She knew that it would just mess with his head and that it probably wasn't a good idea. They shouldn't be doing this. They shouldn't be dancing this way. Tomorrow morning, when the sun comes up and their hangovers set in, she knows she's going to regret it. She's going to regret toying with Barry's emotions this way. Or worse, what if he feels guilty for toying with _hers_? What if he's not really into this, and this is all just the alcohol? What if he's not even interested in her anymore?

Iris pushed away all of those negative thoughts though. Those questions can wait to be addressed tomorrow. Right now, all Iris can focus on is her and Barry. Because even if it's wrong, it feels right. It feels _good_.

"Uh oh," Barry said suddenly later on in the evening. He had stopped dancing and was looking at Jesse. Iris looked over too. Jesse had an unpleasant look on her face, and she was clutching her stomach, looking like she was going to—

Barry suddenly disappeared into thin air, taking Jesse along with him. Iris and the others quickly made their way over to the bathrooms to find Barry standing outside the door to the ladies room.

"Can someone go in there with her?" he asked awkwardly, "I was going to run her outside, but I was too dizzy."

"I've got her," E2 Iris said, going into the ladies room.

Iris surveyed Barry worriedly.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

Barry looked a little green all of a sudden.

"Yeah," he breathed, "Just turns out that drinking and superspeed don't really mix well."

He grinned suddenly.

"We should see how fast I can run when I'm drunk," he said excitedly, "Alcohol is a depressant, so we should see how it affects my speed."

"Um, no we shouldn't," Iris said, laughing at him for suggesting what was probably one of the worst ideas she had ever heard.

She couldn't quite tell before, but she could now. Barry was drunk.

Not that she was much better herself. The room seemed to be spinning, and it seemed like she was looking at the world through some kind of filtered lens. She tried to tally in her mind how many drinks she had had up to this point, but she really had no clue. Her bar tab was probably going to cost her a fortune. Although, she had a suspicious feeling that Barry had gone up to the bar and paid for hers a little while ago. She was going to have to talk to him about that.

They ended up taking Jesse downstairs to the Arrow cave to let her rest for a minute rather than walk back to their hotel right away. Oliver offered to arrange for a ride for them, but they politely declined. The hotel really wasn't very far from Verdant, and arranging for a ride just seemed silly.

"Your dad is going to kill me," Barry said, handing Jesse a glass of water.

He seemed to have taken on the role of Jesse's caretaker, seeing as Caitlin was a little incapacitated as well, sitting behind the desk in the Arrow cave with her head in her hands. The music from the club above them was muffled now but still audible from where they were.

They hadn't planned on it, but they ended up staying there for a long time, laughing and passing around a bottle of top shelf gin that Oliver had grabbed from the bar upstairs.

"At least Trajectory didn't ruin it this time," Cisco said, taking a swig from the bottle and passing it to Caitlin, who shook her head and passed it right along to E2 Iris.

"Who's Trajectory?" E2 Iris asked curiously before taking a swig herself.

"She was another speedster," Cisco said, "The only lady speedster we've met so far."

Cisco started to laugh then as if he had thought of the funniest thing in the world.

"She totally kicked Barry's ass," he chortled.

"Did not!" Barry said indignantly, "I just didn't want to hit a girl, that's all."

"Right," Cisco said sarcastically, "Okay, Barry. Whatever you say."

Barry rolled his eyes but laughed nonetheless. Cisco sighed then.

"It's too bad she's gone though," he said suddenly, "I thought you two made a cute couple."

Barry sputtered over the gin he had been taken a swig from.

"What?" he asked.

"Well, you know, you're both speedsters," Cisco said.

"Yeah," Barry said, "And?"

"Oh come on, man!" Cisco said, "You can't tell me you haven't thought about it?"

Caitlin giggled.

"I have," she said, her words slightly slurred, "I wonder how that would even work."

"How what would work?" Barry asked, not understanding where this was going with his slow thinking at the moment.

"Speedster sex," Cisco said.

Barry went bright red in an instant.

"Ugh," Oliver groaned, rubbing his eyes, "This is something that I do _not_ want to hear about."

Iris blushed too, but she couldn't pretend that she wasn't also a little curious about it. She, herself, had wondered about what special speedster abilities Barry might have up his sleeve.

"I've been meaning to ask you about that actually," Caitlin said to Barry, giggling, "When you have sex, do you…you know?"

"Do I what?" Barry asked, his face now completely red. Although, he could have just been flushed from the alcohol. Barry's cheeks always turned a bit red when he was drinking, something Iris found absolutely adorable. She always loved it when Barry blushed.

"You know," Caitlin slurred, " _Vibrate_."

"Jesus," Oliver groaned, "Can we not?"

Barry coughed and looked awkwardly at the floor.

"I don't know," he muttered, his ears now also going red to match his face, "I mean, I _can_ , if I want to, but I can control it now. I couldn't at first, but I've had practice since then, and…"

"Practice, huh?" Cisco said, waggling his eyebrows.

Barry rolled his eyes.

"What I mean is," he said awkwardly, "I kind of had to learn to control it when I was with Patty. I can still do it, but it's not exactly something I've tried out."

"You mean with another person," Cisco said menacingly. Barry groaned.

Cisco suddenly started to laugh hysterically then, hiccupping slightly.

"Barry Allen," he choked, "The human vibrator. Ladies, line up."

Barry laughed embarrassedly as everyone else joined in. This conversation would have been so much more awkward if they were having it sober. That is, if they would have had it all. Now, it just seemed funny.

"We're all out of gin," Iris said sadly, holding up the empty bottle.

"I'll run and grab us some more," Barry said immediately, standing up from where he had been sitting.

"Barry, wait," Caitlin said suddenly, "Don't—"

Suddenly there was a loud bang as Barry slammed into the wall on the other side of the room.

"—run," Caitlin finished, "Are you okay?"

Caitlin and Iris both rushed over to help Barry off the floor.

"Shit, that really hurt," Barry said, laughing.

Iris couldn't help but laugh too as Barry rubbed his head in an almost comical way.

"Barry, you can't run home tonight," she said, "You'll right into a car or something for sure."

"I'm good," Barry assured her, still rubbing his head, "I just need to readjust to this dizziness."

"You shouldn't drink and run, dude," Cisco said, leading Barry over to a chair so he could sit down, "Friends don't let friends run drunk."

Everyone laughed, including Barry.

"Alright then," he slurred, "Looks like I'm stuck in Star City for the night with the rest of ya then."

"We should probably get going," Caitlin said, suppressing a yawn, "Jesse's passed out already, and I've had more than enough to drink for the night."

"Same," Iris said, steadying herself on a nearby chair.

"Well, maybe if Barry hadn't been shot pushing," E2 Iris laughed, looking at Barry.

"Hey, in case you forgot, getting shots was your idea," he said defensively.

"Maybe the first round," she countered, "But I wasn't the one buying shot for everyone all night, now was I?"

"Fair enough, I guess," Barry said, grinning mischievously.

Caitlin hadn't been kidding. Jesse really was out like a light. Barry ended up lifting her into his arms and carrying her up the stairs. Iris just couldn't get over how sweet that was, how much Barry had taken it upon himself to take care of Jesse when she needed it.

It probably would have gone smoother if Barry wasn't so drunk himself. Once they were upstairs, he ended up bumping into someone, effectively spilling their drink all over himself.

Exhausted, drunk, and, in Barry's case, covered in someone else's beer, the group made their way back to their hotel. Barry sweetly laid Jesse down into her bed, letting Caitlin take her shoes off and take care of the rest. Cisco was already sprawled out like a starfish, passed out in his bed that he got to have to himself.

Barry ended up staying in the other hotel room with Iris and their married earth 2 doppelgangers. He was too drunk to even consider the awkwardness of that situation. Really, they all were so tired by the time they made it back to their room that nobody really gave it much thought or notice.

"You're all covered in beer, Barry," E2 Iris said, looking at Barry's soaked T-shirt.

"I know," Barry groaned, looking down at himself, "I'm going to have to hang it up to dry."

Barry pulled the beer-soaked shirt over his head then, leaving him shirtless in the middle of their hotel room. Iris was too drunk to even think about averting her eyes. She ended up staring blatantly at his abs, too dumbstruck to do anything but stare. Thankfully, Barry didn't seem to notice. He was already making his way over to the bathroom to hang up his shirt on the towel rack, his _only_ shirt. Iris simply watched him in drunken awe.

"He could probably borrow one of Barry's shirts," E2 Iris suddenly said to her when Barry was in the bathroom. She gestured towards her husband who nodded his agreement. "He has some extras packed along, and well, they're actually Barry's shirts anyways that we borrowed from his closet."

"That's okay," Iris said without thinking, staring through the crack in the bathroom door where she could still see Barry's shirtless reflection in the mirror as he hung up his shirt, "He'll be alright."

E2 Iris smirked at her.

"If you say so," she said with a knowing smile.

Curse Iris and her stupid drunken mouth. Did she always have to be so transparent?!

She silently held in her glee though when Barry returned from the bathroom, still shirtless, and E2 Iris made no move to offer him a shirt. Iris thought that maybe she saw the other woman wink at her, but she wasn't sure. The room was still kind of spinning right now.

Barry grabbed an extra blanket out of the hotel room closet and one of the pillows off the bed and set them on the floor.

"Barry, you don't have to sleep on the floor," Iris said as soon as she saw what he was doing, "There's plenty of room on the bed. It's a queen."

Barry looked at her, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Are you sure?" he asked awkwardly.

"Of course," Iris said, smiling at him, "It'll be just like old times, like when we used to have sleepovers."

Barry smiled at her.

"Alright then," he said tiredly, returning the pillow to its place on the bed before climbing into it.

Iris exchanged a look with her double then before she climbed into bed next to him. She was sure this time that the other woman had most definitely winked at her, before she too climbed into her bed next to her husband, turning off the light.

…..

**Okay, that last part was a bit forced I'll admit, but I couldn't resist :)**

**I really hope I'm not making this story too awkward, first with the footsie under the dinner table, and then the dancing, the sex talk, and now this last scene. Someone please let me know if I'm going overboard with it!**

**Like this one, my next update is going to take a while because of school. In the meantime, please leave a review!**


	7. Hangovers and Unexpected Visitors

**I know it's been a while, sorry! I got caught up in other stories. I hope you guys like this chapter. It might be a little painful to read, but it wouldn't be much of a story if there weren't a few bumps in the road along the way.**

**Hangovers and Unexpected Vistors**

It was not just like old times.

When Iris and Barry used to have sleepovers, it was most definitely not like this. Iris had not been _this_ aware of his presence in the bed next to her, they hadn't had a married version of the two of them sleeping in the bed next to them, and Barry most certainly hadn't been drunk and shirtless as he laid next to her, already drifting off to sleep.

Iris laid flat on her back, staring at the dark ceiling which was still spinning. It served as a reminder of how drunk she still was, how drunk they _both_ were. Iris laid completely still, listening to Barry's breathing next to her. It was already steady. Iris slowly turned her head to look at him, and sure enough, his eyes were closed and he was sound asleep.

He had fallen asleep no problem, so why couldn't she?

She doubted whether she would ever fall asleep like this. She was too hyperaware of a shirtless Barry Allen lying in bed next to her. The irrational, impulsive drunk part of her brain had a strong urge to move closer to him, to slide over in bed until they were pressed against each other, the same way they were when they had been dancing together earlier that very evening.

The more rational, sober part of her knew that would be inappropriate. If she were sober, she would never cross that line. She would never cuddle in bed with Barry in a situation like this, a situation where they were not together, they were not a couple, and a married version of them was sleeping in the same room, only a few feet away.

Except Iris _wasn't_ sober.

…..

A soft light filtered into the room through a crack in the curtains. The light seeped through Iris's eyelids, forcing her into consciousness. The first thing she noticed was her searing headache. She should have drank some water before bed.

She wasn't uncomfortable though. In fact, she didn't think she'd ever slept so well in her life, which was strange because she normally slept like shit after a night of drinking. No, instead of being uncomfortable, Iris felt warm and cozy. A soft, warm presence seemed to be enveloping her.

That was when Iris's eyes shot open, remembering where she was and whom she was there with. When she opened her eyes, she was lying on her side, facing the other bed in the room, which was now empty. The other couple must have gotten up already and left the room to get breakfast or something. Iris hardly paid that any mind though. She was too focused on the strong arm that was wrapped around her, draped over her side and curled around her stomach. She could feel a warm, hard body pressed up against her from behind, every inch of him in contact with hers.

It reminded her strongly of when E2 Barry had come up behind her in the kitchen and wrapped himself around her from behind. Except this wasn't E2 Barry. This was Barry, _actual Barry_ , who was pressed up against her, chest to back, hip to hip, their legs tangling together in the best way. It was also different from that kitchen incident because she didn't feel at all uncomfortable. It wasn't someone who had mistaken her for his wife. It was _Barry_ , and lying here, wrapped up in his arms felt right. She felt as if there was no other place in the world she'd rather be than here, wrapped in Barry's strong warmth.

It only added to feeling the fact that Barry was still shirtless. If someone had told her yesterday that this was how she'd be waking up today, lying in bed, spooning with a shirtless Barry Allen, she would have thought they were crazy.

Barry was clearly still asleep. She could feel his soft, even breaths tickling at the back of her neck. He was completely still, not shifting or stirring like he normally did in his sleep. Barry was sleeping completely sound and at ease.

And then Iris started to really think. Oh, God. What had she done? It was obvious that she was the one who had slid over to him. Her half of the bed was empty, and they were both crammed together on Barry's side of the bed. Then again, he was the one who had wrapped himself around her. But Barry had been asleep. For all she knew, his subconscious mind thought she was Patty or something. That idea saddened her when it crossed her mind. Because this felt right. It felt good, and Iris found herself wishing she could wake up _every_ morning wrapped in Barry's strong embrace.

As she thought about it though, Iris became more stressed. What now? What happens when Barry wakes up? Is he going to regret it? Is _she_ going to regret it? Is this going to change their relationship even more? The awkwardness between them had just been starting to go away. Things were finally starting to feel normal with Barry again, and now this. How was Barry going to feel about it? How would he react?

At least they didn't appear to have done anything. It's not as if they actually had sex or made out or anything. Or had they?!

No, Iris thought, no she would have remembered _that_. She may have been drunk last night, but she wasn't _that_ drunk. She wouldn't have crossed that line with Barry while under the influence. She would have wanted that moment with him to be special, not some trashy drunken night out that ended up with them making out or sleeping together. And Barry wasn't that kind of guy either. Even if he was also drunk himself, he would have seen that as taking advantage, and Barry would never do that. He would have wanted it to be special too.

They had cuddled though. Iris remembered that. Both of them had been in a light, drunken state of sleep at the time, but she could vaguely remember curling up to him, both of their hands roaming. She wondered how much of it Barry would remember. Her own memories were pretty foggy. She vaguely remembered it, but she couldn't remember any of the details. All she remembered was Barry's warmth and his _skin_.

What was she supposed to do now? Lay here and wait for him to wake up? Should she uncurl herself from his arms? Should she get out of bed entirely to avoid any awkwardness? She didn't like the idea of him waking up to an empty bed though. Although, maybe that would be better. She didn't really know what would be the best action to take. She didn't have much time to think about it though because a moment later, Barry started to stir.

…..

It took a long time for Barry to get his eyes to open. Normally, Barry was bursting with energy in the morning. Normally his speed force allowed him to open his eyes and jump right out bed and start his day. He didn't feel that now. Now, his eyelids were made of lead. They didn't want to open. He shifted his position slightly, stretching out his body. It wasn't until then that he felt the other person pressed up against his front. Barry's eye lids shot open instantly, heaviness forgotten.

He came face to face with a head full of dark hair. His face was practically buried in Iris's long locks, the smell of her shampoo filling his nostrils. His arm was wrapped completely around her, and her body was pressed tight up against his. He was hyperaware of her ass pressed right up against his crotch, which instantly sent a rush of blood to spread across his cheeks. He just hoped it didn't rush to other places.

After taking all of this in and mentally processing the compromising position he found Iris and himself to be in, Barry gently pulled his arm away from her, turning away so that he was on his back, disentangling himself from her. He heard a soft sigh escape her lips then, and she started to stretch slightly. He wondered if she had been awake or asleep just now. He really wasn't sure. All he could focus on was the realization that his chest was completely bare. Where the hell was his shirt?!

He didn't have much time to think about it though because Iris was turning around in bed to face him. She laid on her side and smiled shyly at him. Barry thought his heart might stop. The sight of Iris, laying in bed next to him with the sunlight filtering in from the window behind her, casting light on her skin and making her glow, was too much for him. He couldn't breathe with how beautiful she was in this moment.

"Morning," she said softly.

He could sense a bit of discomfort from her. A slight hesitation in her small smile. She was looking at him nervously, as if anticipating some kind of reaction from him. All Barry could do was stare at her.

"Morning," he said back.

His throat was dry. He told himself that it was only because of how dehydrated he probably was, but he knew it was also from this, from this moment. Barry sat up in bed quickly, feeling sick to his stomach. It wasn't just the hangover though. It was the situation.

Oh God, what had he done? Iris was probably going to feel even more awkward around him now. She had just finally started to act normal around him again, and now this. He had probably made her feel uncomfortable. He had wrapped himself around her while they were sleeping! And God knows what else. Barry really couldn't remember much. He vaguely remembered coming back to the hotel and tucking Jesse into bed. He could almost remember stumbling around in the bathroom before going to bed, but he didn't remember taking his clothes off. He also didn't really remember crawling into bed with Iris. He remembered walking into the hotel with the intention to sleep on the floor so as not to invade her personal space. He didn't know how that plan had changed.

He had _definitely_ invaded her personal space. That was for sure. She was probably going to feel weird around him now. She was going to hate him for putting her in that position again, for making her "the bad guy who has to keep saying no." He wants to take it back, wants to tell her that he didn't mean to do any of it, that he had been drunk and that last night hadn't meant anything to him, that those feelings he had had for her were now gone and that she didn't have to worry about telling him no anymore. She didn't have to feel uncomfortable around him.

But Barry didn't say anything. His throat was dry, and he couldn't make any of those words come out. Because they weren't true. He _did_ still have feelings for her. He had just resigned not to act on them anymore. He had told himself that he wasn't going to put her in that position ever again, and now that's exactly what he had done. She was going to hate him for it. He was going to lose his best friend for good this time.

"Barry?" Iris asked, sitting up in bed next to him, "Are you okay?"

"I'm sorry," he said, unable to look her in the eyes, "I'm so sorry about last night. I would blame it on the drinking, but I know that's no excuse."

"What do you mean, Barry?" Iris asked, concern in her voice, "You have nothing to be sorry for."

"I was really drunk," Barry said, "I didn't mean anything by any of it. The dancing. This."

He waved his hand vaguely, gesturing around the bed and the situation they were in.

"I was drunk. It didn't mean anything."

"Oh," Iris said, her face falling ever-so-slightly.

"I'm so sorry if I made you uncomfortable, Iris," Barry said sincerely.

"No," Iris said quickly, "No, Barry, you didn't. It was actually…"

She sighed heavily.

"Well, like you said, we were drunk. It didn't mean anything."

Barry's heart sank upon hearing her agree with him. It only further confirmed to him that Iris didn't have feelings for him, and she never would. He then resorted to his most often used coping tactic. Deflection and avoidance.

"Well, we should probably go grab some breakfast," he said, plastering a fake smile on his face to hide his hurt, "I'm starving."

Iris laughed then, although it still sounded somewhat hollow.

"You do realize you ate all of the food they had stashed in the Arrow cave last night," she said, "Oliver wasn't happy."

Barry laughed and shyly rubbed the back of his neck.

"Sorry," he said, still smiling, "I always used to get really hungry when I was drunk. I guess being a speedster only made that worse."

Iris laughed at that as she was climbing out of bed, stretching once she was standing. Barry couldn't stop the little inhalation of air that passed through his lips when he saw what she was wearing. He had been too drunk last night to notice when Iris changed into the thin tank top and shorts she was sleeping in. The sleeping attire didn't cover very much and left little to the imagination. Barry quickly averted his eyes before she could see him goggling at her.

Just then, the door to the room opened and their earth two counterparts walked in, fully dressed and ready for the day, having just come back from breakfast.

"Hey, you two," E2 Iris said cheerfully, walking into the room carrying an entire box of muffins for them, "We got these from the bakery just down the street. I got a bunch of them for you Barry, figuring you'd be hungry."

Barry laughed and thanked her gratefully as he got out of bed. Iris smiled at them and then grabbed her bag to bring it into the bathroom to change into something a little more appropriate. Barry looked around for his shirt, but he couldn't find it anywhere. He really wished he had brought a spare change of clothes.

Barry now vaguely remembered taking his shirt off, but he didn't remember why. That was what was bothering him most. He hoped he hadn't been a total douche about it, like one of those guys who always took their shirt off when they were drunk. God, he was so embarrassed.

"Some asshole spilled his drink on you last night," E2 Iris told him as if she had read Barry's mind, watching him search for his shirt with amusement, "You hung your shirt up to dry in the bathroom."

"That's right," he said, remembering now.

He felt instantly relieved. At least he had a plausible reason for getting half naked in their hotel room last night.

"Here, I have a clean one for you," she said, pulling a spare t-shirt out the overnight bag she and her husband had packed.

Barry stared at her as she handed him a clean, extra shirt.

"Why didn't you give me this last night?" he asked, confused.

She just shrugged, a small smile on her face.

"I don't know," she said dismissively, "I was drunk. I didn't think of it."

Barry noticed his double shake his head at his wife, an amused look on his face, but he didn't say a word about it. Barry looked at both of them suspiciously for a moment before slipping the shirt on over his head.

E2 Iris then handed him the box of muffins, and Barry thanked her gratefully before opening the box. That was when it hit him.

As he looked down at the box of muffins in his hands, Barry realized just how hungover he really was. His stomach instantly started churning at the sight. He was going to be sick.

…..

_I was drunk. It didn't mean anything._

Those words kept repeating themselves in Iris's head as she stood in front of the mirror in the small bathroom. She knew Barry hadn't said them to hurt her. He had said them to reassure her. After all, he had no idea that her feelings had changed. She hadn't exactly done anything to suggest that or convey that idea to him. To him, he thought she would be relieved to hear those words. Instead, all she felt was disappointment. She missed the feel of his arms around her already.

She wondered if what he said was true, if he really meant it when he said it didn't mean anything, or if he had only said that to preserve their friendship. That's what she had done after all. She had agreed with him just to keep things from getting awkward. It was a bit late for that though. Things were already awkward between them now.

She had just finished getting dressed when there was suddenly a frantic knocking on the door.

"Iris," Barry's urgent voice called through the door, "I really need to get in there!"

She opened the door in confusion, but Barry didn't offer any kind of explanation. Instead, he rushed right past her over to the toilet, just barely making it there in time to throw up.

"Sorry," he gasped when the gagging had subsided.

He flushed the toilet and then moved over to sit on the edge of the bathtub next to it, smiling apologetically at her as he braced his hands on his knees.

"You're the one feeling sick," Iris said in amusement, "Why are you sorry?"

Barry shrugged.

"I don't know," he said, a small smile on his lips, "It's gross."

Iris just laughed at him, amused.

"Do you feel better?" she asked him in concern.

Barry shook his head, ducking his head down between his knees as he took deep breaths, clearly trying not to throw up again.

"Do you want me to get Caitlin for you?" she asked, worried about how pale and sweaty he had suddenly gotten.

"No, thanks. I'm good," he said, his voice muffled as he spoke through his hands that were covering his face, "Actually, would you mind leaving? I don't want you to see this."

Iris sighed in exasperation.

"Barry, I've seen you sick before," she said, "We grew up in the same house, remember? I've seen you with the flu, and I've seen you hungover before."

"I don't usually get sick like this from hangovers," he groaned.

"Well, you weren't exactly drinking regular alcohol last night, now were you?" Iris said reasonably.

"Is he okay?" E2 Iris asked, appearing in the doorway just in time to see Barry lunge for the toilet again, emptying his stomach into it.

Iris moved over to crouch down next to him, rubbing a supportive hand against his back.

"Would you mind grabbing Caitlin?" she asked the other woman.

"I'm good," Barry groaned, but another wave of nausea struck him, and he ducked his head down towards the toilet again, gagging and heaving horribly.

E2 Iris left the room anyways and returned shortly later with Caitlin, who entered the room with a worried look on her face as she rushed over to where Barry was kneeling on the floor, one hand braced against the toilet and the other clutching his stomach.

"Sorry, Barry," Caitlin said immediately.

"Why are you sorry?" he asked her as he gasped for air.

"I got you drunk," she said, "But I also got you hungover."

"Well, don't the two usually go hand and hand?" Barry pointed out, giving her a small smile which would have been way more reassuring if his skin wasn't a pale grayish color.

"I'm going to take a few blood samples just to be safe," she said, pulling out supplies.

"You keep a blood collecting kit in your purse?" E2 Iris asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Seriously, why does everyone find that so weird?" Caitlin asked as she tied off Barry's arm.

Barry didn't even seem to be paying attention to what she was doing. He had his eyes closed with his head braced against his arm. Iris grabbed him a cool washcloth as Caitlin started drawing up a blood sample from him.

"I don't know what you're going to do with that without a microscope," Barry said once she had her blood sample.

"I have API203 test strips and all the chemicals to test for acetaldehyde with me," she told him.

"Okay, that's just weird, Caitlin," Barry said with a small laugh which subsided quickly, apparently aggravating his headache.

"Well, after last time, I wanted to come prepared," she told him, pulling out her test kits and setting them all up on the bathroom counter.

Iris continued to dab at Barry's forehead with the cool washcloth. He smiled at her gratefully. It took Caitlin a few minutes, but she got the test results fairly quickly considering she was doing it in a hotel bathroom.

"Your ADH levels are extremely low," Caitlin said seriously, "You'll need to drink a lot of water to compensate."

"I don't think I'd keep it down at this point," Barry said, giving her a weak smile as he took deep breaths, trying to control his nausea.

"I'll start you on an IV once we get back to STAR Labs," she said, "Your ADH levels are far below the normal levels for the average hangover. What worries me most is the amount of acetaldehyde in your system. I thought once your body had processed the alcohol, it would be able to take care of the acetaldehyde easily, but it appears that the compound I used to slow down your body's metabolic capabilities is inhibiting the excretion process. It's not cycling out, and it's just circulating your blood stream right now, making you sick."

"I really don't need all the details right now," Barry groaned, leaning over the toilet as another wave of nausea washed over him.

Thankfully he didn't throw up again though. He just felt like he was going to.

"I just need to know that you can fix it," he said, breathing heavily.

"I suppose there are a few things we could try," Caitlin said thoughtfully, "Disulfiram, lipoic acid. I'll see what I can do."

Barry nodded before leaning over the toilet again, this time actually gagging a few times. Iris rubbed small circles into his back as he choked and gagged. He looked miserable, and she wished she could do more to help him.

"You stay with him," Caitlin said to Iris, "I'm going to go back to Jesse. She's in a bit of a similar situation right now in our bathroom. At least for her, it's just a normal hangover though. All she probably needs is water and some greasy food. Barry might be a little more complicated."

Iris nodded, and the young doctor left the room. It was a good thing they had a doctor in the group to take care of them the morning after a night out. What would they do without Dr. Snow?

Caitlin was right when she said that dealing with Barry's hangover was going to be complicated. When they got back to Central City, Barry had thankfully stopped throwing up, but he was shaky and weak. Caitlin was quick to get an IV in him to treat his severe dehydration, and she gave him a couple of different concoctions to remedy his hangover. Unfortunately, they were going to take a while to kick in.

Iris sat down by Barry's bedside as Caitlin was dimming the lights and everyone else left so he could rest.

"How are you feeling?" Iris asked him gently, giving him a small smile.

Barry groaned and rubbed a hand over his face.

"I'm never drinking again," he groaned, "Never."

Iris laughed.

"I'm pretty sure that's not the first time I've heard you say that," she giggled, "How's that been working out for you?"

Barry laughed lightly at that, but he stopped quickly when it aggravated his headache.

"I'm sorry about this," he said, "I'm sure this is not how you wanted to spend your Sunday."

"Barry," Iris laughed, "Don't be silly. I'm just happy that this time you're lying in this bed because you had a fun night out, not because of some metahuman."

Barry laughed.

"I _did_ have fun last night," he said, "I don't think I've been that drunk since college."

"Not true," Iris said, "You were pretty drunk off Grandma Esther's eggnog that one Christmas. That was after college."

"That doesn't count," Barry laughed, "That was your fault. You kept giving me more, and you don't exactly go light on the bourbon."

Iris giggled.

"Well, consider it pre-anticipated payback for you getting me drunk last night."

Barry frowned suddenly, the smile disappearing from his face.

"I wasn't trying to get you drunk," he said quietly, "We were just having fun."

The smile slid from Iris's face then as she realized what he must be thinking.

"No, Barry," she said quickly, "I didn't mean it like that. I know you were giving _everyone_ shots, not just me. I know you weren't…"

She trailed off awkwardly, not knowing what to say. Barry sighed.

"I hope things aren't going to be weird between us now," he said sadly, looking away from her, "After this morning…"

"They're not, Bar," Iris said firmly, "Like you said, it didn't mean anything."

Barry took a deep breath and looked at her then, his expression serious.

"I didn't mean that," he said, his voice barely audible, "I…I mean. I don't know."

He looked like there was more he wanted to say. He just couldn't bring himself to say it. Iris understood though, and she reached out to touch his hand.

"It wasn't meaningless," she said, and then closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to work up the courage to say what she wanted to say, "Barry, I—"

"You better be resting in here," Caitlin said seriously, walking into the med bay, hands on her hips, "Barry, you have _severe_ dehydration and alcohol poisoning. You should really get some sleep."

Caitlin really couldn't have worse timing, Iris thought bitterly.

"I'm resting plenty," Barry placated, "Laying down and everything."

Caitlin gave him a stern look before leaving the room again.

"What were you saying?" he asked Iris intently once they were alone again.

Iris chickened out.

"I was just going to say that things don't have to be weird between us now," she said, "I'm not upset with you in any way, and you need to stop apologizing like you did something wrong. Because you didn't. Really, nothing even happened. All we did was sleep in the same bed and maybe cuddle a little in a state of drunkenness. We don't have to make a big deal of it."

Barry sighed and nodded.

"Thanks, Iris," he said with a smile, but the smile still looked sad. That had clearly not been what he wanted to hear her say.

"You should get some rest," she said, standing up, "You need to detox. Try to get some sleep."

Barry nodded wordlessly, and Iris left the room. Although Barry felt a little bit better about everything that had happened, he still had a sinking feeling in his chest as Iris left.

…..

By Monday, Barry was feeling back to his normal self again. Physically, at least. A heaviness seemed to have settled in his heart though, and no matter what Barry did, he couldn't get rid of the feeling. Like Iris had said, things seemed to go back to normal between them again. There was a slight awkwardness that lingered in the wake of the weekend's events, but for the most part, they didn't let any small amount of weirdness get in the way of their friendship.

Barry didn't know how to feel about it. He was glad that Iris wasn't treating him differently because of the minor physicality that had transpired between them when they were drunk, but at the same time, he was disappointed. Really, nothing had changed. They had gone back to doing whatever twisted dance around each other they had been doing for months.

She wasn't interested in him that way, and she never would be. That was just the honest truth of it, and the sooner he could accept that, the sooner he could move on. Moving on was easier said than done though, especially when he had to witness the obvious love and happiness that their earth two counterparts clearly shared together.

Their little touches and longing stares hadn't escaped Barry's notice of course. It was hard to ignore. It made his heart ache with pain and longing as he had to constantly remind himself that he would never have that with Iris. He would never have the life that earth 2 Barry had, and the best thing he could do was move on and accept his own life for what it was.

Barry tried not to think about it as he analyzed bullet trajectories in his lab, trying to focus on the case he was working on and not on the happiness that his earth 2 double possessed that he would always be destined to envy. He was distracted from his work, however, when he heard the soft footsteps of someone entering his lab.

He looked up, and a wide smile spread across his face when he saw who it was.

"Patty."


End file.
